The Legend Of Spyro: Bringer of Pain
by AlexTheCrow
Summary: Before Malefor waged war against Warfang, a dragon was born with exceptional abilities and dark magic inside him. The other dragons feared that he would become the next Dark Master and shunned him. After years of hiding in the Warfang ruins, he is finally back to take his revenge after the war is over. Will Spyro and Cynder be able to convince him to change for the better?
1. Chapter 1: Still Alive

**Chapter 1: Still Alive**

* * *

"You cannot defeat me! I am eternal!" Malefor shouted before letting out a strong beam of energy out of his mouth. Spyro and Cynder immediately retaliated with beams of their own, causing Malefor's beam to be deflected. As Malefor's beam got stronger, Spyro and Cynder got wearier.

"Just... hang... on!" Spyro said as he poured out all of his mana into his beam. His beam, combined with Cynder's, got stronger, and eventually overpowered Malefor's. Malefor was knocked back and fell onto purple core of the world, but he quickly got up, getting ready to attack once more. Just as he was about to attack, five spirits that took on the forms of dragons rose out of the ground.

"What is this?" Malefor boomed, confused at what was going on. The five spirits hovered over him for a split second before circling him, causing him to sink into the core of the planet. "Nooooo!" his demonic voice faded as he was sucked into the core.

Upon seeing this, Spyro and Cynder felt a nice sense of relief. However, that did not last for long. The core started shooting out purple beams, causing cracks in the earth. Spyro and Cynder quickly landed on a nearby rock.

"Spyro, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Cynder apologized. She had involuntarily used him to resurrect Malefor and needed his forgiveness. "Don't be," Spyro said, comforting her. "It's over now."

As the world continued to fall apart, they stared helplessly as the earth and stone crumbled. "So this is it..." Cynder said, with sadness written all over her. Spyro closed his eyes. _"Spyro, when a dragon dies, he does not truly leave this world." _Ignitus' voice echoed in Spyro's head. _"His spirit lives on, binding itself with nature, offering hope for the future..."_

Spyro opened his eyes. "I know what I need to do. Just get out of here, Cynder." He had a determined look on his face. "Spyro, no... You don't have to do anything. Let's just go." Cynder tried to convince him, fearing that Spyro was going to sacrifice himself for her. "Where, Cynder? There'll be nothing left! The world is breaking apart." Spyro said. "But I think I can stop it. I think I'm meant to." At this point, Cynder couldn't bear to lose Spyro. She had made up her mind. "Then I'm with you..." she replied.

After hearing that, Spyro closed his eyes and focused the last of his energy into fixing the world. He knew that he would die from using too much power, but at least he would die as a hero. He glowed a bright purple as he rose into the air and hovered there. This was it. _Goodbye, everyone._ He thought as he let out a small aura of energy and magic around him. As he focused harder and harder, the aura got bigger. Unfortunately, he was running out of power quick, and would not be able to fix the entire planet with his remaining energy. Just when he was starting to lose hope, he heard a soft and soothing voice whisper into his ear. "I love you..."

All of a sudden, a huge amount of energy surged through his body, so huge that he would be able to fix the world and maybe live to see it. He channeled in even more energy, and his aura got even bigger. Soon, it was big enough that it covered the entire planet in a blinding purple light. As the pieces of the world started to drift away, he pulled them back together. The rocks and ashes on the surface of the planet turned into lush greenery and grass. The volcanic mountains turned into grassy hills. It was working.

As much as he wanted to save the world, he wanted to be able to see Cynder again, even if it was for the last time before he died. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and her love meant everything to him. He wanted to die with a smile on his face. He reserved some energy for his survival, but doing this caused some pieces of the world to stay afloat, similar to the floating islands outside Malefor's lair. After he was done and the world was returned, he stopped hovering and fell onto the ground. However, this ground wasn't the hard surface of the planet's core, it was soft grass. He had somehow plunked Cynder and himself near to the Valley of Avalar in the process of saving the world.

Meanwhile, the remaining dragon guardians and Hunter came out of the entrance to the Warfang ruins to see what the purple light had been, and were shocked to see that everything was back to normal. Sparx had also come out of his hiding place and saw the world was saved. _That's my brother, alright. _He thought as he watched the sunrise.

...

The Chronicler slowly read over the book that was in front of him and smiled. His time was up, and a new chronicler was to take over him. He noticed Ignitus' presence and turned his head to the side a little. "Be welcome, friend. I have long been expecting you," he said. "A new age is beginning... with each new age, a worthy dragon is chosen to chronicle the many triumphs and failures of that age," he explained. "This has been my duty for many millennia." He turned to face Ignitus. "And now, Ignitus, I pass this honor to you." Ignitus smiled. As honored as he felt to be the new chronicler, he was worried about what had happened to Spyro after he saved the world. "And... What of Spyro? Is he..." The Chronicler cut him off. "Hmm, that is the question, isn't it? You see, each time a dragon dies, a new page is written in this book." He said as he closed the book he was looking at and opened another one. "I've done my best, but I can't seem to find any trace of Spyro." With that, he glowed a bright blue, and passed on his role to Ignitus.

After the Chronicler disappeared, Ignitus' scales were now blue, and he now wore the same armor that the old chronicler was wearing. He was the new chronicler. He looked at the book which the old chronicler had told him recorded the deaths of dragons. "Well, young dragon. Where might you be?" He said to himself as he started looking through the book.

...

Spyro slowly opened his eyes. His vision was too blur for him to see anything._ Oh no._ he thought to himself. _I didn't use too much energy, did I? _As his vision began to clear, he saw Cynder. She was sitting next to his body and had a sorrow expression on her face. She had a bunch of red crystals in her claws. "Ugh... Cynder? Is that you? OW!" A sharp pain shot through his throat. His whole body was aching from what he had just done. "Spyro?" Cynder's face suddenly lit up. "Spyro, you're alive!" She reached out to hug Spyro and put her head next to his. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, Cynder, I know you're trying to be nice, but that really hurts... ow!" Spyro said. "Oh, sorry. Here, have some of these." She fed the red spirit gems that she was carrying to Spyro. He absorbed the energy from the crystals and his body started to hurt a bit less. "Ah... much better." For some reason, Spyro's body did not seem as worn out as he had imagined it to be. After restoring some of his health with the spirit gems, he could walk and fly around like he would normally be able to. _I probably saved up a little too much energy back there, but I'm alive!_ He thought as he flew around and did loops in the air.

Cynder just sat down and smiled as she watched Spyro fly around and jump for joy. She had found the red gems while Spyro was still unconscious. Although her body ached a bit from the battle with Malafor, she imagined that Spyro would be in much more pain than her and decided to save the gems for him.

Spyro landed in front of Cynder. "Can you believe it, Cynder? We're heroes! We saved the world!" Cynder chuckled a little. "No, Spyro. You're a hero. You fixed the world, not me." She pulled Spyro into another hug, but this time, she started rubbing her head lovingly against his cheeks and the side of his neck. Spyro started purring a little to this. It felt good for him.

After a while, Cynder snapped out of the slight trance she was in and pulled back from the hug quickly. "Sorry, I uh... wasn't really thinking..." she said uneasily. These words sunk into Spyro's head. _Then, what if she wasn't thinking when she told me she loved me? Gosh, why does this have to be so complicated? _He thought.

Spyro came back to reality. "Oh, er... so... what do you wanna do now? I mean, we just saved the world and all, so do you want to return to Warfang? Or do you have something else planned?" Spyro asked Cynder. She simply shrugged. Her body was still a bit painful, and she would need to use some spirit gems or rest a little before she would be able to fly to Warfang, which was a significant distance away. "My body hurts a little, so I think I'll just rest for a while. Let's go find somewhere we can get some sleep," she said.

Spyro, being the caring dragon he was, came up with a little plan. He was going to find some red gems for Cynder while she was sleeping and give them to her as a surprise. "Alright," he said. "Let's go find somewhere we can get some rest." With that, the two purple dragons set off, looking for somewhere they could find shelter at.

* * *

**A.N. That's it for the first chapter of this story. I hope you enjoyed. Tell me how garbage I was in the reviews. :D**


	2. Chapter 2: Last Words

**Chapter 2: Last Words**

* * *

After flying around for a while, Spyro and Cynder came across a small cave. "We could rest here," Spyro suggested. Cynder nodded and landed onto the floor of the cave. "Sleep well," Spyro said. Cynder smiled warmly at him. "Thank you."

Before anything else could happen, a sprit that looked like Ignitus appeared before them. "Ig...Ignitus? Ignitus, you're alive!" Spyro was overjoyed to see him, and Cynder got up as well to greet him. Ignitus simply chuckled. "No, Spyro. Don't you remember what I told you back at the core of the world?" Spyro recalled what Ignitus had said about dragons not truly leaving the world after dying. "Oh... but who cares if you're a spirit? It's as if you're still alive!" Spyro was still happy to see Ignitus again. Ignitus smiled and patted Spyro on his head. "There is a limit to the amount of time I can spend with you, young dragons. Just listen to what I have to say."

Upon hearing this, Spyro didn't seem so happy anymore. "Oh... Alright..." he said, sounding a little disappointed.

"Cheer up, young dragon. You just saved the world!" Ignitus chuckled, trying to cheer Spyro up. "Anyway, I just wanted to tell you, I have nothing else to say to you two anymore."

Spyro looked up in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I have nothing else to say to you two anymore, because you have surpassed me. I am no longer your teacher anymore. You two have become fine heroes." Ignitus continued.

Tears welled up in Spyro and Cynder's eyes. "That's all thanks to you..." They both said.

Ignitus smiled warmly. "Farewell, my friends. I have much to do as the new chronicler. The world has been fixed, and the ancestors have sealed Malafor into the core. I know my sacrifice was not in vain. A new age has dawned, and you two are the light of it. The fate of the world, the shape of the future, these things belong to you now. Send my regards to Terrador, Cyril and Volteer."

As Ignitus' spirit started to fade away, he turned around and walked away. Spyro ran after him. "Wait! I need to tell you something!"

"What is it, Spyro?" Ignitus asked as he turned to face Spyro.

"To me, you were like a father. You were always in my heart. You were my state of mind. I know I was just a friend to you, but I listened to everything you said. What has protected me to this day... were your words to me. I never got to tell you that before you sacrificed yourself."

Ignitus shed a tear as he put his paw on Spyro's head. "Spyro, thank you. You were more than just a friend to me. You are nature's way of balancing itself. You are a true hero." With that, his spirit vanished.

"You must really miss him, huh..." Cynder said as she put her paw on Spyro's back to comfort him. Spyro nodded. "But he did what he had to. And he'll remain in my heart forever."

Cynder smiled. "I'm glad you've gotten over his death. I'm sure we'll see him again some time. He trusted you to save the world and you did it. I'm proud of you for that, and I'm sure he is too."

Spyro blushed a little. "Alright, let's get some sleep."

The two of them lay down inside of the cave. Spyro closed his eyes, pretending to sleep.

After Cynder dozed off at one corner of the cave, he got up. Remembering his plan, he flew deeper into the cave in search of some red gems. Soon, he came across a few deposits of the gems and started harvesting them. A few grublins tried to attack him, but they stood no chance.

After he had gathered enough red gems, he consumed some of them and left the rest of them in a pile next to Cynder. He lay down in the opposite corner and looked at her as he tried to get some rest. _She's beautiful..._ he thought to himself as he looked at her deep purple closed his eyes and drifted off into sleep.

...

When Spyro woke up, Cynder was already using some of the red gems he had gotten for her. "Did you get these for me?" Cynder asked as Spyro got up and stretched his wings. "Yeah, I thought you might need them." Spyro told her. Cynder thanked Spyro and finished up the rest of the gems.

"So are we heading back to Warfang now?" she asked him. "Why not?" Spyro replied. The two of them flew out of the cave and in the direction of the dragon city.

On the way there, they came across the cheetah village that they had saved from the grublins and wyverns. They decided to stop by and pay the village a visit. Prowlus, the chief, greeted them. "Well, well. If it isn't my favorite outsiders. I've heard news of what you two did from Hunter."

Cynder grinned. "Oh, you know, we just saved the world, no big deal."

Prowlus smiled. "Well, I think you two heroes should go back to Warfang. They'll be waiting to welcome you there."

"That's exactly where we were heading. We just stopped by to see how you were doing," Spyro explained. "Well, we're leaving now. Take care!" The two dragons spread their wings, getting ready to take off.

"Wait, one more thing."

They turned around. "What is it?" they both asked.

"Cynder, you have redeemed yourself. You are forgiven for whatever you have done in the past."

Cynder's eyes widened. "I... Thank you..." she replied as she flew off together with Spyro.

"Cynder, are you alright?" Spyro asked her.

"Yeah... it's just that... that was the first time someone else besides you told me that they forgive me," she said as she cried tears of joy.

"Cynder, we're heroes now. Forget about your past."

Cynder smiled. "Thank you."

* * *

**A.N. Tell me how garbage I was in the reviews :D And I have one question for you. Did reading this make you feel the slightest bit emotional?**

* * *

**VallitanTheDragon: Thank you for the feedback :)**

**MurasakiKuroAkai: I kinda forgot about that lol... anyway, thanks for the feedback as well :)**


	3. Chapter 3: Heroes Come Back

**Chapter 3: Heroes Come Back**

* * *

When the two dragons arrived at Warfang, they were shocked to see that there was almost no sign of the war at all. Although Spyro had left bits and pieces of land here and there, put some buildings upside down and accidentally rearranged some places, the city looked in pretty good condition. "Spyro? Did you do this?" Cynder asked as they approached the main gate of the city. "I think so... I don't really know..." Spyro was a little confused at why some buildings were upside down and wondered what he was thinking when he fixed the world, but he was glad to see the city in good condition.

When they landed in front of the gate, Sparx was eagerly awaiting Spyro's return. "Hey, Spyro! How've you been, brother! I thought you were dead, man!" he flew over to Spyro and gave him a hug on his neck. "It's good to see you too, Sparx," Spyro chuckled. Cynder waved to Sparx. "For once, I actually missed you," she admitted. Sparx shrugged. "Same here. You forget how it's like to have to follow two dragons around after a while."

The moles that were guarding the gates greeted Spyro and Cynder and opened the gates for the three friends. "So, what do we do now?" Spyro asked Sparx.

"Oh, I think the two of you will probably be harassed for paw prints, you're heroes now, remember? Anyway, I think you two should go to the guardians before you do anything else. Let em' know you're still alive, y'know?"

Spyro nodded. "Sounds good. How about you, Cynder?"

Cynder shrugged. "No comment."

When they entered the city, everyone they passed by were congratulating them and welcoming them back. Cynder was overjoyed. This was the first time she was ever acknowledged as something else besides 'The Terror Of The Skies'.

...

The three of them spent a bit of time looking for the temple as Spyro had almost completely rearranged the city in the midst of saving it, but they eventually managed to find it. They entered the temple, and were immediately greeted by the three guardian dragons, Cyril, Terrador and Volteer.

"Spyro! Cynder! It's wonderful to see you two! This is fabulous!" Volteer exclaimed, being his usual talkative self.

Cyril and Terrador greeted them as well. "It's nice to see you two again but, where is Ignitus?" Terrador asked. Spyro looked down in sorrow. "He sacrificed himself so that we could cross the belt of fire." The three guardians looked down in sorrow as well. "As fearless in life, as he was in death," Cyril said.

"But, I saw his spirit earlier today," Spyro told them as his face lit up.

"Really? That's astounding!" Volteer said.

"He's the chronicler now and he told me to send his regards to the three of you."

"The new chronicler, Ignitus? I never thought he'd be in to that kind of work," Cyril commented.

"At least he died with honor. He will remain in our hearts forever," said Terrador.

...

"So, what do you wanna do now?" Sparx asked the two dragons after they were done talking with the guardians. "I don't know about you guys, but I haven't eaten in a while, and red gems aren't exactly very appetizing," Cynder said. "Alright, let's get some food then," Spyro replied.

Sparx watched as the two of them talked to each other. A suspicious look crept onto his face. There was definitely something there that wasn't there before. Cynder was noticeably warmer towards Spyro now, and Spyro seemed to be the same. _Oh, boy... This isn't happening... _he thought. But he knew they were slowly falling in love with each other, and there was nothing he could do about it. _Well, I saw this coming anyway. They grow up so fast..._

"Well, they should be serving food in the temple right about now, so why don't we grab a bite here?" Sparx suggested. The three friends walked into the dining hall, where the three guardians were already eating at one side of the long table. Spyro and Cynder sat down on the other side and started eating, and Sparx just hovered around the table, grabbing everything that looked tasty to him.

While they were eating, Spyro thought about what Malefor had told him. _"I'm sure you've been told that I was the first of our kind... but I assure you, there have been many. It has been the duty of our predecessors to resurrect the Destroyer and the golems of the deep... to bring about the great cleansing. This is the true nature of our kind. Your destiny is to destroy the world." _

Cynder noticed he was picking at his food and gave him a slight nudge. "Hey, you ok?" she asked, looking worried.

Spyro shook is head. "It's nothing... I was just thinking about what Malefor told me... about the purple dragons destroying the world..."

Cynder draped a wing around Spyro. "Don't listen to anything he said, Spyro. He's crazy. Like I said, you saved the world which is the exact opposite of what he told you, and I'm proud of you for that."

Spyro blushed a little at what he had heard. "Thanks..."

Cynder smiled warmly.

* * *

**A.N. I decided to release a double chapter update today. :D**

* * *

**MurasakiKuroAkai: I'm glad you found it nice :)**


	4. Chapter 4: Spyro vs Terrador!

**Chapter 4: Spyro vs Terrador!**

* * *

Later that day, Spyro and Cynder decided to explore the 'new' Warfang that Spyro had rearranged. They walked around for a bit until they were approached by Terrador. "Spyro, I, or should I say, we have a favor to ask of you," Terrador told him.

"What is it?" Spyro asked, sounding curious.

"Well, now that you are a hero and you have defeated Malefor, everyone in town seems to want to see you in a fight. Since I am the supposedly the strongest guardian of the remaining three, I've been dragged into this as well..." Terrador sighed. "But anyway, I would also like to see what Ignitus has taught you so far. It will be an honor to fight you, Spyro."

Spyro considered for a while. He didn't have much else to do that day anyway. He accepted. Terrador lead him to the training grounds outside the temple, with Cynder and Sparx tagging along. A crowd was at the sidelines waiting for him. "We'll go join the crowd and watch, good luck!" Cynder said as she and Sparx went over to the crowd of moles, cheetahs and some dragons.

"So who do you think will win?" Sparx asked Cynder. He already knew her answer, though. "Spyro," she replied almost without thinking.

Soon, the match began. Spyro and Terrador took their positions at either side of the arena, and Terrador went over the rules. "I'm not really going to waste too much time, so I'll make this short and sweet. No destroying anything outside of this area, and no fatal attacks." Spyro nodded. "I can do that."

Cyril and Volteer, who were watching behind the crowd, were also eager to see the battle. "How come Terrador gets to fight the legendary purple dragon? Aren't I stronger than him?" Cyril complained. "Use your brains, Cyril! Spyro knows how to use fire, he'll toast you before you lay a claw on him!" Volteer chuckled. Cyril grunted in annoyance. _I hate it when he's right,_ he thought.

"Show me what Ignitus has taught you!" Terrador slammed his forelegs on the ground, and a few pieces of the ground floated up. He launched them towards Spyro. Spyro flew up and dodged the rocks. He glided over Terrador while raining fireballs down on him. Terrador summoned a wall of earth on top of him for protection. Spyro spun around and made an air-dash towards Terrador, effectively breaking through his wall of earth. He raised a claw to strike him, but Terrador quickly darted away and sent more rocks at Spyro.

Spyro jumped to the side dodged them again. "As if something like that would hit me!" he said, sounding a little arrogant. Just then a thick wall of earth rose up at one side and started moving towards him. He tried to move away to avoid being crushed by it, but he noticed that Terrador's intentions with the rocks were never to hit him. It was to direct him into the corner of the arena so that he would be trapped. "I win," Terrador said softly to himself while smiling.

However, Spyro proved him wrong. He made a hole through the wall using his convexity beam. Terrador sighed. "I need to learn to shut up..." Spyro dashed back into the center of the arena. "Actually, I have a few attacks I've been planning to try out..." he said to himself. He took in a deep breath. Terrador, expecting him to breathe fire, made a wall of earth in front of him.

Spyro opened his maw and exhaled, but what came out of his mouth wasn't fire. It was ash. _What is he trying to do? _Terrador thought to himself as he saw Spyro spit out ash and cover part of the arena in it. _A smokescreen? No, it can't be... _He then realized what Spyro was trying to do. He quickly tried to move out of the cloud of ash that Spyro had made, but it was too late.

Spyro bit down and spit a bit of fire into the cloud of ash. The cloud of ash was lit on fire, and one half of Terrador's body was burnt.

"Hey, that's new," Cynder, who was watching from the crowd said to herself.

_Heh, Ignitus really did teach him well, after all,_ Terrador smiled and thought. _But from now on, I'll be on the offense. _He slammed his forelegs on the ground again. This time, small golems came out of the ground and started running towards Spyro as they shot rocks at him. _Trying to outnumber me, huh?_ Spyro grinned. He flew up and landed in the middle of the golems. He spun himself around, generating a field of ice around him and destroying all of the golems that came close.

Terrador quickly launched more rocks at Spyro while he was distracted by the golems. One of the rocks managed to hit Spyro's wing and injure it, rendering him temporarily flightless. Terrador then flew up into the air, realizing that Spyro was not able to fly any longer in this fight. He clapped his paws together, causing the earth underneath Spyro to disappear. Spyro, who was unable to fly at this point, quickly made a pillar of ice below him and stood on it. He then launched a few more fireballs at Terrador who was hovering above him. Terrador dodged them. "As if something like that would hit me!" he quoted Spyro jokingly. However, Spyro had planned his actions wisely, and had other intentions behind shooting the fireballs into the air.

After a while more of fighting, it started to rain heavily in the arena. Both Terrador and Spyro were panting heavily. "Out of mana already, young dragon?" Terrador teased Spyro. "Speak for yourself," Spyro countered. "But you are right. I was running out of mana a long time ago. I used almost all of it up on those fireballs I shot at you." Terrador shot him a suspicious look. "What are you up to?"

Spyro chuckled. "You'll see." The storm continued to rage. "With this last attack, this battle will be over. It cannot be dodged." Terrador started analyzing the surroundings, trying to figure out what Spyro was talking about. _He's already almost out of mana, is he going to try to hit me with a physical attack? It can't be... he said that this attack cannot be dodged. _Just then, he heard the sound of thunder rumbling. _No way... it can't be..._ Terrador realized that this fight was lost.

Meanwhile, Cyril and Volteer were watching. "I hate to say this, but Spyro's won," Volteer said. Cyril shot him a confused look. "What are you talking about?"

Back on the arena, Spyro opened his maw again, but this time, a spark of electricity appeared in his mouth.

"That's it! That's what the fireballs were for!" Volteer exclaimed. "What do you mean?" Cyril asked him. "Spyro's target was never Terrador! When he launched the fireballs into the sky, he rapidly increased the ambient air temperature to create an ascending air current!" Volteer said. Cyril clearly did not understand anything Volteer had just said. "In english, please."

"Spyro shot the fireballs in the air to make a cumulonimbus, in other words, a thundercloud!" Volteer exclaimed. "This is a certainly remarkable technique!"

Cyril still seemed a little confused. "So what does he plan to do with the cloud?"

"He doesn't have to use his mana, he just needs to take advantage of the enormous ambient atmospheric energy to create a lightning element attack! That's why he was using the fire element, so that he could use the heat generated by the fire!" Volteer explained further.

"Sorry to say this, Terrador, but I win this round." Spyro grinned. "This attack guides the lightning to strike down on my enemy. In simple terms, I will direct the lightning towards you."

"Just as I thought... which is why it cannot be dodged!" Volteer said.

"Why not?"

"The speed of lightning is a thousandth of a second! It's even faster than sound!" Volteer said.

Just then, a bolt of lightning struck right in front of Spyro and combined itself with the spark in his mouth. He made sure he didn't absorb too much lightning because he didn't want to kill Terrador by accident. "I win." He shot the spark at Terrador, who immediately braced for the attack by summoning a barrier of earth around him. Spyro's attack broke through the wall and electrocuted Terrador. Terrador collapsed to the ground, and slowly got up again after the electricity died down. "You really are a worthy opponent, Spyro. I can see why Ignitus took so much pride in you." he smiled.

The crowd roared with excitement. It was truly an intense battle. Cyril and Volteer immediately flew over to Terrador with red gems in their claws. Spyro smiled triumphantly as the crowd cheered for him.

* * *

**A.N. Did you get the references made in this chapter? Tell me how garbage I was in the reviews :D**


	5. Chapter 5: Confession

**Chapter 5: Confession**

* * *

After the arena had cleared out and Terrador had fixed the holes that the battle had caused, he walked up to Spyro to congratulate him. "I never thought you would be able to launch an attack of that kind of power at me, let alone control it so that it would not kill me. You truly are worthy of being a hero, Spyro."

Cynder, who was standing next to Spyro, cleared her throat a little.

"Ah, yes. Not to forget you, Cynder. Perhaps someday I will witness your true strength. Until then."

Cynder nodded. She didn't really want to be 'worthy', she just wanted to be accepted.

"Hey, how about me? I'm a hero too, right? Right?" Sparx said.

Nobody replied.

"As usual. The dragonfly gets no credit."

Spyro, Sparx and Cynder exited the training grounds. "Man, that was some awesome stuff! How come I never see you do that?" Sparx said, patting Spyro on his back. Spyro just smiled. "It's just something new I've wanted to test out," he explained.

Cynder smiled. "Well, you're officially the strongest dragon in Warfang now, so congratulations, I guess."

Spyro blushed at her compliment. "Yeah... thanks..."

Sparx coughed. "Alright, um... who's up for a feast at the temple?"

"Sure, I don't think I'm even restored to my full power yet," Spyro said.

Cynder shrugged. "No comment."

"Not that you ever had one," Sparx laughed.

...

When the three friends had finished their dinner, Sparx decided to hang out with the three guardians and maybe get some kicks out of watching Volteer and Cyril argue, leaving Spyro and Cynder on their own.

The two dragons were sitting at a balcony of the temple, enjoying each other's company while looking at the stars. While Spyro was looking at the night sky, his gaze turned to Cynder. She seemed to look even more beautiful under the moonlight.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Cynder asked, not noticing that Spyro was looking at her and not the sky.

"You sure are..." Spyro blurted out, not realizing what he had just said.

Cynder turned to face Spyro. "What?" she giggled.

"I mean, uh... it sure is..." Spyro corrected himself and quickly turned to face the sky again.

Cynder looked at Spyro and smiled. She wanted to confess her love to him once more, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to do it again. _Ugh... come on! You've told him you loved him before, why can't you do it again? Does it have to be at the brink of your death before you can confess? _she thought to herself.

On the other hand, Spyro had feelings for Cynder as well, but he was under the impression that Cynder didn't actually love him because she 'wasn't thinking' when she confessed her love to him at the core of the world, and he didn't want to end up embarrassing himself in front of Cynder by confessing to her, although he really wanted to express his feelings.

...

When it was time to hit the hay, the three guardians showed Spyro and Cynder to their rooms in the temple. Sparx shared rooms with Spyro.

"So, pretty crazy day today, huh? Hey, that rhymed, three times!" Sparx said to Spyro as he lay down on a table next to the bed that Spyro was sleeping on. "Yeah..." Spyro replied. He seemed to be deep in thought as he said that.

"Hey man, something bothering you?" Sparx asked, noticing that Spyro was acting a little weird.

"It's... It's nothing important..." Spyro said as he rolled over to face the other direction.

"You know you can talk to me right? Brother?" Sparx said, trying to convince Spyro to tell him what was wrong.

Spyro turned back to face Sparx. "Alright... but promise me you won't tell anyone."

"Promise."

Spyro inhaled deeply. "I... I love Cynder..." he confessed. "And I'm only telling you that because you're my brother."

Sparx didn't seem surprised.

"You're not going to call me crazy for falling in love with someone who tried to kill us?"

Sparx chuckled. "Y'know, honestly, it's kinda obvious and even I could tell that... but anyway," Sparx cleared his throat. "You're sad... because you love her?"

"No! I... I just don't know how to express it to her..."

"Heh, why don't you get a gift for her? Maybe just let her know that you care?" Sparx suggested.

"But I don't even know what she likes! And I'm just her friend... it's not like she loves me back or anything..."

"You sure about that? Huh, anyhoo, I know I used to hate Cynder, but she seems cool now. I don't really mind if you love her or anything. I saw it coming anyway."

"Well, there is a chance that she does have feelings for me, but I doubt it," Spyro said, recalling what Cynder had said back at the core of the world.

"What is it?" Sparx asked.

"Well, when I was putting the world back together, I think I heard Cynder tell me that she loved me, but later on she told me that she wasn't thinking."

"Well, I ain't judgin' you, man. Keep it spicy." Sparx winked.

Spyro chuckled. "I'll try to."

"Well, good night then."

"Good night, Sparx."

...

Meanwhile, deep down in the caves in the ruins of Warfang, another dragon was also preparing to get some sleep.

"Tomorrow, the world shall know my pain. Everyone has resented and hated me, denying me of my existence and shunning me. I shall make their wishes come true, and I will wipe the memory of my existence from this world. By killing everyone."

* * *

**A.N. I know this was a short chapter, but I couldn't really think of anything else to add in here. Tell me how rubbish I was in the reviews :D**

* * *

**MurasakiKuroAkai: I kinda didn't want to prolong the argument because I felt it might be redundant and 'lame', but I could try to be funny in those if you would like me to :D Spyro's technique was Sasuke's 'Kirin' from Naruto**


	6. Chapter 6: Resurrection

**Chapter 6: Resurrection**

* * *

"Spyro! Spyro, man, wake up!" Sparx shouted as he shook Spyro vigorously. "Ugh... Sparx? What is it you want?" Spyro groaned as he got up.

"Come quick! This is important! Well, everything I say is important, but this is an emergency! We need your help!"

"Ugh..." Spyro groaned and stretched as he got up from his bed. "Come quick!" Sparx said as he waited at the door. Spyro opened it for him and they both went out of their room.

"What is it now, Sparx?" Spyro said, curious about what Sparx had been wanting to show him. "No time to talk!" Sparx flew down the stairs into the main hall of the temple.

When they exited the temple, Spyro was shocked to see the whole of Warfang being shrouded in darkness by giant gray clouds, similar to what had happened to it when the city was at war with Malefor's forces. "What's going on here?" Spyro asked. Cynder was also standing outside the temple, looking at the clouds. "I don't know, but this isn't normal."

Just as she finished saying that, a giant figure of a dragon appeared in the clouds. He was black in color and had dark smoke coming out of his body, just like Cynder when Malefor had infused his dark magic into her. However, his eyes were visible, unlike Cynder. His sclera and pupil were red and his iris was black. His eyes burned with demonic hatred.

"Citizens of Warfang. It is I, the Bringer of Pain. You all may mostly know me as 'that thing' or 'the monster'. For years you have despised me and denied me of my existence. You have harbored hopes of getting rid of me. On this day, I shall grant your wishes! I shall wipe all the traces of my existence from this world by killing each and every one of you!"

His gaze turned to Spyro and Cynder. "As for the two 'heroes' who saved the world, you may not know who I am. I will give you one chance before I destroy everyone this miserable world. Flee from this city as far as you can, and I will spare you." With that, the image disappeared.

"Hey, what about me? Am I not a hero? Hey, come back!" Sparx shouted.

"Who was that?" Spyro said to himself.

"Come on, we need to tell the guardians!" Sparx said.

"We are aware of the situation!" As if on cue, Cyril, Volteer and Terrador landed next to the three friends.

"To think that he would resort to killing everyone..." Volteer frowned.

"Who was that?" Spyro asked again.

"His real name is Molt. Born with dark magic inside him and exceptional abilities, even for a dragon. What he said was more or less true. He grew up without knowing either of his parents and was looked down on as a future villain because of his dark powers. The other dragons feared that one day he would end up like Malefor and shunned him," Volteer explained.

"Yes, and one day, he left the city. Nobody knew where he went or why he left, but it looks like he's back," Cyril continued.

"And he wants to kill everyone in Warfang? Nuh-uh, we ain't gonna let that happen!" said Sparx. Spyro and Cynder nodded in agreement.

The group of them didn't have much more time to talk. The gates of Warfang burst open, and a wave of grublins and wyverns started attacking the city. A few dragons and cheetahs tried to defend against them, but were outnumbered by the vast amount of enemies.

The guardians, along with Spyro, Sparx and Cynder, flew towards the gate that had been broken. They quickly killed off all the hostile creatures. A smaller image of Molt appeared at the gate. "It seems that our heroes decided not to take my advice," he frowned. "Malefor failed to take over this city for three years because he was weak and pathetic. Do not underestimate me!" The image vanished, and three coffins rose up from the ground. The first one had the word 'Earth' on it, the second one had 'Electricity', and the third one had 'Ice'.

The three guardians frowned when they saw this.

The coffins opened, and a dragon stepped out of each of the coffins. They looked normal in their appearance, except that their eyes were just like Molt's.

"Terrador, is that you?" The dragon who came out of the earth coffin asked.

"Master..." Terrador started to look angry. _How dare he bring them back from the dead! _he thought.

"Who are these dragons?" Spyro asked, noticing that the three guardians seemed to recognize them.

"The past guardians that were before us. Molt's brought them back from the dead to fight for him," Cyril responded coldly.

The dragon who came out of the electricity coffin charged up a bolt of electricity in his maw. "I'm sorry! I can't control my actions! My body's moving on it's own!" He shot the bolt at Volteer, but Volteer evaded it.

More coffins started coming out of the ground, and more dead dragons who had been resurrected emerged from them.

"What a cruel thing to do…" Cynder said.

"Spyro, Cynder, you two go on ahead and find Molt. We'll take care of things here," Terrador said softly to them as he summoned a wall of earth to block an attack.

"Are you sure you can handle this all by yourselves?" Spyro asked, sounding worried.

"Don't question my ability now, Spyro! The three of you! Go now!" Cyril shouted.

"Alright, just make sure we don't come back to see a zombie apocalypse!" Sparx said.

The three friends flew over the walls of the city and landed outside. There were no giant siege towers or volcanos, so it appeared quite safe for them to land. There were a few grublins hacking at the walls of the city, but they had to trust the guardians to settle things there.

Another image of Molt materialized in front of them. "Going somewhere?" He slammed his paws on the ground, and another coffin rose up. This one read 'Fire' on it.

Spyro flew over to the image of Molt and tried to scratch it, but his claws went right through Molt.

"Spyro, stop! You can't hurt him right now, this is just an illusion! We have to find the original!" Cynder called out.

Molt smiled wickedly. "Good luck. I'll be waiting for you." He laughed maniacally and faded away.

Spyro and Cynder turned to face the coffin.

The coffin opened and a red dragon stepped out. The three friends gasped in horror.

Spyro's eyes widened in shock. "Ig... Ignitus?"

* * *

**A.N. Yup, it's a cliffhanger. Tell me how garbage I was in the reviews :D**

* * *

**MurasakiKuraAkai: Here you go :D There'll be more romance after Molt is taken care of. :)**


	7. Chapter 7: Reunion

**Chapter 7: Reunion**

* * *

Ignitus slowly emerged from his coffin. "What is this? My body's moving on its own..." he mumbled to himself. He opened his eyes and saw two familiar faces in front of him. "Spyro? Cynder?"

Sparx frowned. "Hey, what about me? Don't you remember me? Does anyone remember me at all?"

Spyro was at the verge of breaking down into tears. "Ignitus..." Ignitus looked exactly the same as when he was alive, except for his eyes, which were the same as Molt's. He would have been happy to see Ignitus again if not for the fact that he would have to defeat him in order to get to Molt and stop him. It was truly a cruel thing for Molt to send Ignitus up against Spyro.

"Yes, it seems I have been brought back to this world by some kind of resurrection magic," Ignitus said. "And it looks like my opponent will be the two of you."

An illusion of Molt appeared next to Ignitus. "Do you have a slight idea of the pain I have gone through now? This is only a tiny fraction of the agony my life has given me. Be grateful for that, you purple mutt! It was your choice to side with Warfang! You will either stop me, or die trying!" he faded away again.

Ignitus dashed forward and raised a fiery claw to strike Spyro. "My body's moving on its own! You have to dodge my attacks!"

Cynder quickly tackled Spyro, causing him to fall to the side, and took the hit for him. "Spyro, snap out of it! We have to defeat him!" she said as she turned back to look at him.

"Spyro, if you remembered what I said to you in the cave, I told you that you had surpassed me. Prove me right! Defeat me, if you really are the legendary purple dragon!" Ignitus said as he charged up a huge fireball in his maw.

"I can't do it!" Spyro shouted as he broke down into tears. "I can't take you down, Ignitus!" Cynder quickly fired a shadow ball at Ignitus to deflect his attack.

"Pull yourself together, young dragon! Right now, I am your enemy! It is as simple as that! Taking me down is the only thing you can do to help me!" Ignitus slammed his forelegs on the ground and created an explosion around him, knocking Spyro, Sparx and Cynder back.

Cynder blew a whirlwind at Ignitus. "Come on, Spyro! You're the only one who can help defeat him! You know him better than I do!" Cynder kept on trying to convince him. Spyro slowly got up. "I know what I need to do." He took in a deep breath and shot a beam of convexity out of his maw. Ignitus quickly darted out of the way. "You'll have to do better than that, Spyro!" He shot three giant fireballs at Spyro. Spyro countered using fireballs of his own.

"Don't forget about me!" Cynder said as she shot a ball of acid at Ignitus. He quickly dodged it, but the pool of acid began to expand and managed to burn one of his feet. He quickly flew up and breathed fire towards the ground as he neared Spyro and Cynder. Spyro smacked his paw on the ground, causing a pillar of earth to rise up underneath Ignitus, hitting him in his belly. Ignitus coughed out a little bit of blood as he fell to the ground. Spyro's body sparked with electricity and he directed it towards Ignitus, electrocuting him.

However, after the electricity died down, Ignitus got up as if nothing had happened to him. "Spyro, use your convexity! That's the only way you can stop me!" He created another explosion around him. This time, Spyro had a plan. He raised a wall of earth in front of him to shield Cynder and himself from the attack. Almost immediately after the explosion died down, Spyro shot another beam of convexity at Ignitus, which shot through the wall of earth in between them and took Ignitus by surprise. He fell back onto the ground. "Well done, Spyro. Keep hitting me like that!" _He managed to survive that? _Spyro thought to himself. _No wonder he used to be the strongest guardian. _He knew that he needed to get rid of Ignitus fast, or Molt would sooner be able to kill everyone in Warfang.

Spyro closed his eyes and charged up his convexity fury. "Cynder, distract Ignitus for me. I'm ending this battle." Cynder nodded and used her phantom fright on Ignitus, causing him to be paralyzed. Ignitus began to charge up his own fire fury. "Watch out, Spyro! Ignitus has fury as well! Cynder warned him. "It won't help him."

They unleashed their furies at the same time, but Spyro's convexity fury quickly overwhelmed Ignitus' fire fury, and struck him at full force, causing a purple explosion around him.

When the smoke cleared, Ignitus' eyes had returned to their original shade of yellow and were no longer like Molt's. "I feel as if I'm slowly losing my consciousness... but I can control my body now..." Ignitus said as he walked towards Spyro, who was slowly getting up. "Spyro, I have one final thing to say to you before I leave." He reached out to Spyro and hugged him. "Whether or not you defeat Molt, whatever you choose to do, I will love you forever. You were always like a son to me. I only wish I had realized that before my death." Spyro started to cry and hugged Ignitus back tightly. "I love you too, Ignitus." Ignitus' body started to glow white. He turned to face Cynder. "Cynder, take care of my son for me. I have an age to chronicle." With that, his body vanished.

Cynder draped her wing around Spyro. "You alright?" she asked gently. "Yeah, just a little out of mana, that's all. It'll come back soon," Spyro replied. "That was... pretty touching..." Sparx said as he flew out from behind a rock. "You think?" Cynder joked. "So what do we do now?" Sparx asked. "We find Molt and stop him." Spyro held his paw out in the center of the three of them. Sparx put his hand on Spyro's paw, and Cynder followed suit. "We make a good team." Sparx grinned. "As if you did anything at all," Cynder giggled.

"So where are we going to find Molt? I mean, this world is a pretty huge place, y'know?" Sparx asked. "Well, when he cast his illusions, I managed to track down the source of the magic. It's coming from the Warfang ruins," Cynder said. "Then that's exactly where we're heading." Spyro smiled.

* * *

**A.N. Did this make you feel even the slightest bit emotional? Or am I that bad at this? Anyway, tell me how garbage I was in the reviews :D**

* * *

**MurasakiKuroAkai: Yeah, I actually misspelt his name throughout the whole story XD Anyway, I've fixed it. Thanks for the feedback**


	8. Chapter 8: Under Warfang

**Chapter 8: Under Warfang**

* * *

The three friends arrived at the entrance to the Warfang ruins. The door was still open from the time that they had entered to ambush the Destroyer. "You ready?" Spyro asked Cynder. Cynder shrugged and inched a little closer to him. "I'm a little scared..." she admitted. "Don't worry. I won't let you get hurt. Just stay close to me, I'll protect you," Spyro reassured her. Cynder smiled warmly and nudged Spyro on his cheek almost lovingly with her snout. Spyro nudged her back. Sparx immediately realized where this was going, and cleared his throat quickly. "Ahem, I think we have a city to save?" he reminded the two dragons. Spyro snapped out of his trance. "Uh... yeah... let's go."

The three friends ventured down into the Warfang ruins. They encountered a few grublins on their way, but finished them off quickly. They also found a few green gems for Spyro to use, as his convexity fury had left him pretty low on mana.

The three friends were walking in a dark tunnel that had been dug out in a wall. Sparx was their only light source. "Cynder, are you sure this is the right way?" Sparx asked. "I don't know," she snapped. "All I know is that Molt's illusions were being cast from here. I don't know if he's in this tunnel, but this doesn't look like its part of the ruins, and I think of all places in the ruins he would be in here. I won't have the exact location unless he casts his illusion again."

As if Molt had heard Cynder, his illusion appeared in front of them. "Impressive. You actually managed to track me down all the way here. But I won't let you reach me so easily!" Just as he finished saying that, three strange looking creatures emerged from the opposite end of the tunnel. However, these weren't close to anything that Spyro and Cynder had seen in their adventures together. What they didn't know was that these creatures that stood before them were the apes, resurrected and mutated by Molt's power, turning them into mindless, humanoid monstrosities. The apes' eyes matched Molt's, like all the other enemies the three friends had encountered, and their bodies were partially deformed with black smoke coming out of them, similar to shadow apes. However, these apes had flesh, unlike the shadow apes, which were merely skeletons. Their limbs were twisted in awkward angles and some had extra arms or legs. Even Cynder couldn't even recognize what they were.

"What are those things?" she said to herself, not knowing that Molt could hear her. "Don't you remember, young dragoness? These are the creatures you've spent nearly half your life with!" he answered her. Cynder knew what he was referring to, but she couldn't bring herself to believe that Molt had turned the apes into such disturbing and hideous creatures. "No... you couldn't have..." she muttered. "Yes, I could, and I did. These are the apes that once served under the worthless dog Malefor. They're just as pathetic as he was. Such a disgrace to our kind, wasn't he, that Malefor. Sad to think he got sealed into the core of the world by two useless hatchlings! I have used my powers to make these apes even more powerful than the Dark Master could ever have made them! The shadow apes were no better than the ordinary ones! This is the true power of dark magic!" he laughed maniacally and faded away.

"Woah, those things... are the monkeys? What kind of steroids has he been giving them?" Sparx said, disgusted by the apes that were before them. "I don't know what he's done to them, but they're definitely a lot more powerful than the apes we know!" Spyro replied.

The ape in the middle charged up a shadow ball in his hands while the two others teleported away. Spyro quickly raised a wall of earth in front of him to block the attack. The two other apes appeared next to him and pinned him down by his legs and his back. Cynder quickly tried to help Spyro shake them off, but the ape who was charging up his shadow ball fired, breaking Spyro's wall of earth down and hitting Cynder. Spyro struggled to break free from the grip of the two apes, but they were extremely strong and his legs felt like breaking as they held him down. The other ape slowly walked towards Spyro as he charged up another attack. Thinking fast, Cynder used her siren scream to paralyze him. She coated her claws in poison and slashed at the two apes that were holding Spyro down. The ape that was standing in front of her suddenly extended a huge, dark arm from his back and uppercut Cynder with great force, causing her to smash into the ceiling of the tunnel. "Cynder!" Spyro managed to turn his head around, bite one of the apes' arms and breathe fire into its face. The ape staggered back, stunned by Spyro's attack. Spyro got up, yanked the other ape off him and blasted the ape in front of him with a powerful beam of convexity.

The ape that had been hit by his convexity had a huge hole in his body, but it started to fix itself, and the hole in its body got smaller. While the hole was closing up, Spyro noticed a small glint inside the apes' body. He recognized what it was immediately. It was a dark crystal. _If I destroy the dark crystal, will it kill the ape as well?_ he thought. Before the hole in the ape's body could close up, he darted towards it and struck the crystal with his claw. He shattered it, and the ape started to melt away into a pile of black slime. He turned around to see if Cynder was alright, but her body had made a huge Cynder-shaped dent in the ceiling of the tunnel, and she was struggling to free herself as the force of the ape's punch had caused her to be stuck. Spyro's body sparked with electricity and zapped the two apes that were still a little groggy from Spyro's attacks. He flew up to the ceiling and helped Cynder down. "Are you alright?" he asked worriedly. "I'm fine. Thank you," Cynder replied gratefully.

"Alright, listen. I know how to beat these guys. Each one of them should have a dark crystal somewhere inside their body. That means we have to blast a hole in their bodies, then destroy it," Spyro explained.

"Sounds easy enough," Cynder said, sounding confident.

"Well, I could just hit them with my convexity again, but I'm running out of mana, and convexity chews up a lot of it. So we'll have to combine our attacks together to break their bodies. Alright?"

Cynder nodded.

Spyro charged towards one of the apes and electrocuted him. "Cynder, use your acid!" he shouted. "On it!" she replied as she spat out a blob of acid onto the ape's body, slowly burning a hole in it. Just as the second ape was about to attack, Cynder paralyzed him with her siren scream, and Spyro used a pillar of earth to pierce through its body, smashing the crystal in the process. He quickly turned to the other ape, which was slowly rebuilding its body. He shot a fireball at the crystal and destroyed it.

"Teamwork, right there," Cynder commented. Sparx came out of his hiding spot. "What did I say? We make a good team," he quoted himself jokingly as he grinned. Spyro and Cynder both rolled their eyes. "Anyway, Molt was dumb enough to cast another illusion, and I know his exact location now," Cynder said. "Off we go, then," replied Sparx. The three friends went down the tunnel, deeper into the bowels of the world.

Sparx lay on Spyro's head and closed his eyes to take a nap. Spyro turned to face Cynder.

"Hey, Cynder?" he tried to catch her attention.

"What is it?" she said as she turned to look at him.

"I uh... sorry I couldn't keep my promise."

Cynder shot him a confused look. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, I promised you earlier that I wouldn't let you get hurt... but... I couldn't protect you..." he replied nervously.

"You're not entitled to protecting me, Spyro. Don't worry about it."

"But you could've broken a leg back there when you got smashed into the ceiling!" Spyro insisted.

"Even if I broke one of my legs, I have five. These four," she gestured to her legs, "and you," she pointed to Spyro. "You might not be connected to me like the other four, but you support me, just like how they do."

Spyro blushed. "Cynder... I..." Cynder put a claw-tip on his muzzle. "Ssh. You talk too much."

The two of them continued to stare at each other, neither of them realizing that they had stopped walking. Their heads were getting closer and closer. Their snouts were about to touch.

Sparx, who noticed Spyro's head wasn't moving or shaking anymore, came to the conclusion that they had stopped because there was something hostile up front. He got up and yawned, unaware of what the two dragons were about to do. "Ugh, can't a hardworking dragonfly get a few minutes of..." he looked up and realized how close Spyro's head was to Cynder's. He immediately knew what was going on and what they were about to do, and that he might have ruined a perfect moment with Cynder for Spyro.

Spyro and Cynder quickly pulled away from each other and turned away bashfully, hoping that Sparx hadn't been watching them the whole time. Sparx smacked his forehead with his hand. "I leave you two alone for half a day and you fall in love. Ugh."

* * *

**A.N. Tell me how garbage I was in the reviews :D**

* * *

**Whoops, there weren't any reviews for the last chapter, which isn't a big surprise, because nobody really reads this garbage I call a story anyway. :D**


	9. Chapter 9: Molt's Power

**Chapter 9: Molt's Power**

* * *

The three friends stood in front of a barricade of rocks and earth. Cynder had led them to it, and behind the wall was the cavern where Molt had last cast his illusion. They could hear a few cries and strange noises coming out from behind the wall. "Ready?" Cynder asked Spyro. "Yeah, Let's do this," he replied.

They smashed through the barricade of rocks with their powers. Molt was nowhere to be seen at first, but what they saw was unsightly. Many apes that had been resurrected were screaming and howling in agony inside cages, unable to control Molt's power. There were other bigger cages that had Wyverns and grublins inside them, also mutated by Molt and screeching as they tried to resist being taken over by Molt's dark magic. There were also some dragons that were mutated, and their brains had been completely consumed by the darkness, turning them into killing machines.

Cynder frowned. "How... how could he be so cruel?" she asked as she leaned her head on Spyro's shoulder. "I don't know..." Spyro answered, also disturbed by how cruel Molt had been to the creatures, even though some of them used to be enemies.

They saw another tunnel that was dug out at the far end of the cavern and decided to go wherever it led them, seeing that it was the only possible place that could lead to Molt. They continued to venture deeper into the tunnel.

Eventually, they found Molt inside a large cavern, infusing dark magic into a resurrected ape. He noticed their presence almost immediately. "Oh, wow. You found me. Congratulations. Whatever will I do." He spun around to face the three friends and turned the ape into black slime. Spyro narrowed his eyes menacingly on Molt. "I don't know what your problem is, but I'm not letting you kill everyone!" he declared.

"Of course you wouldn't. Why would you let me kill everyone, anyway?" Molt slammed his paws onto the ground and a coffin started rising up from the earth. "A final test before you fight me," he said. The coffin had the words 'The Dark Master' on it.

"No! We can't let him resurrect Malefor!" Spyro breathed fire at the coffin and Cynder shot acid at it. The coffin stopped moving upwards for a while, its top half sticking out of the ground. Spyro and Cynder continued to shoot at it, and it sunk back down into the earth.

Molt frowned. "So be it. I don't need to use Malefor's power to win this fight anyway. I was just planning to use him to weaken you, but it seems I have to do everything around here." Molt took in a huge breath and breathed out blue colored flames. These blue flames were much more powerful than normal ones, and he managed to burn Spyro and Cynder by their tails as they both leapt away from his attack. "Keep up!" Molt slammed his paw on the ground and a pillar of stone rose up beneath Spyro and Cynder, nearly hitting their bellies. Next, Molt's body started sparking with black electricity and bolts of static shot out from his body, narrowly missing the two dragons as they continued to evade his attacks. "Running around like a pair of rats!" Molt shouted as Spyro and Cynder hovered around him.

"Fire, Earth and Electricity. He's used three elements already. There's no telling how powerful he is, be careful," Spyro warned Cynder.

"I will."

"Good observation. But sadly, knowing that I'm powerful won't save you!" Molt shot out a beam of dark magic from his maw, creating a huge circular hole at where Spyro had been hovering. Cynder darted towards him and tried to strike him with her poison coated claws, but he quickly turned to her and grabbed her by the throat. "Big mistake!" He grinned evilly and tightened his grip on Cynder's neck. Cynder's scales started to turn black. Molt was infusing his power into her. "Cynder, no! Don't let him control you!" Spyro cried out desperately. Cynder struggled to fight the darkness that was eating at her mind, but she couldn't control its power. She held on to Molt's limb, trying to get him to let go of her while she shouted and screamed in agony as his dark magic corrupted her. Half of her mind was possessed by the darkness, making her scales on one half of her body black and emitting dark smoke, while the other half was her usual shade of purple. "Foolish little rat. You were born merely to be a toy for us dark magic users. You cannot control my power." Molt tossed Cynder to the side like a toy and made an even bigger dent in the wall than the one that the ape had made when he punched Cynder into the ceiling.

"Cynder!" Spyro gasped in horror. Molt turned to face Spyro. A bloodthirsty look crept onto his face. "I'd say this battle is off to a good start for me... but we haven't had enough... blood." Molt appeared behind Spyro and kicked his back with great force. Spyro felt his spine almost crack and coughed out blood. He slammed face-first into a wall, creating a dent in the shape of his body from the force that was used to kick him. Sparx, who was watching from behind a tiny rock that was inside the tunnel to the cavern where they found Molt, winced. _Man, that's gotta hurt. _he thought.

Molt held out his paw with his palm facing Spyro. A small vacuum appeared in the center of his palm. It started sucking in air, and eventually got so powerful that it plucked Spyro's body out from the dent in the wall, causing him to hurtle towards Molt. He grabbed Spyro by his neck and threw him onto the ground. Spyro coughed out some more blood. Molt vomited out two sharp, black, rods from his mouth and used them to pierce through both of Spyro's forelegs, pinning him to the floor. "If you could confront all your hatred and end your pain, what would you do?" Molt kneeled down to Spyro's head and asked him.

Cynder got out of the wall and staggered around clumsily, still partially possessed by the darkness and unable to control her body properly. She lunged towards Molt. Molt turned around grabbed her by the face. He slammed her face-first back into the wall that she had just got out from. Cynder slowly pushed herself out of the wall again. "Spyro... I'll protect you..." she managed to say in a half distorted voice because of Molt's corruption. Her face was full of blood, and her belly had many cuts and bruises. Molt snickered. "Don't make me laugh, you haven't even put a scratch on me yet." He grabbed her neck from behind and pulled her out of the wall. He began to repeatedly smash her into the wall and pluck her out. Then, he took Cynder by her throat, threw her down onto the ground and stomped down on her stomach, causing her to cough out blood.

Spyro and Cynder were fighting a losing battle.

* * *

**A.N. I think this was a little too violent, but whatever. Tell me how garbage I was in the reviews :D**

* * *

**The Dark Death: If you don't like the story, don't read it. Simple as that. I already mentioned that it was garbage.**

**MurasakiKuroAkai: Thanks for the feedback. I just thought that maybe "Cynder-shaped dent" would be a little funny. As for the apes, I didn't really make any references there, I just wanted them to seem tougher.**


	10. Chapter 10: Transformation

**Chapter 10: Transformation**

* * *

Molt continued to beat Cynder up, tossing her around, slamming her into the walls of the cavern and clawing at her body. "Do you have a small taste of what pain is now?" he asked. "Do you finally know what kind of suffering I have been through?"

Spyro, who had been witnessing everything that Molt had done to the dragoness he loved, started to get taken over by the darker side of his soul. _I... I'm going to kill you! I'll rip your head off from its socket! _he thought as he watched Molt smash Cynder into the ceiling. Memories of him killing Gaul and Ignitus' death came back to him. Hatred consumed his mind. His irises vanished, giving his eyes a pure white color and his scales turned as black as the night. Dark smoke started to pour out of his body, forming a small aura of shadowy smoke around him. His fangs and claws grew longer and sharper, and the scales on his belly and the horns on his head turned from gold to a muddy brown. He snarled at Molt like a wild animal. "How dare you... How dare you do that to Cynder!"

Molt turned around to face Spyro and tossed Cynder away like a toy. _The darker side of Spyro's soul... It's responding to his rage. _Molt thought as he watched Spyro transform. The rods of dark magic that were pinning Spyro to the ground shattered as Spyro clenched his paws. He got up, in his full dark form.

"Finally, a real fight!" Molt laughed evilly. Spyro responded by roaring loudly and created a huge ball of convexity in his maw. Although Cynder was aware that Spyro had been taken over by the darkness, she figured that using his dark powers would be the only way to defeat Molt. She let out a high pitched scream and sent three giant red spheres of fear at Molt. Molt stood there as the spheres of fear circled around him, covering him in a red aura and filling his senses with a high pitched screech. He managed to fight the paralysis and lifted his paw up. Cynder screeched at him again, but he didn't seem to be affected. Much to both Dark Spyro and Cynder's surprise, Molt bit down on his own paw. Blood came gushing out of the bite mark. The red aura around him vanished straight away. "I beat your fear element attack using pain," he explained as he let his own blood drop from his mouth. "The useless elements that Malefor's powers have given you won't work on me."

Dark Spyro launched the ball of convexity at Molt, but Molt just sucked Cynder into his right paw using his vacuum powers and used her as a shield. However, Spyro's ball of convexity went around Cynder and hit Molt on his left foreleg, dismembering it. Blood spewed all over the ground next to Molt. He dropped Cynder and backed up. "You haven't got the best of me!" He opened his mouth and a claw emerged from it. The claw touched down on the floor and began to pull itself out of Molt's mouth. To Dark Spyro's disgust and surprise, the claw belonged a new, reincarnated Molt. It emerged from the old Molt's maw as the old Molt started to melt away into black slime.

Dark Spyro roared in anger and extended a giant arm of dark energy from his back. He smashed Molt into the ground so hard that his whole body had been buried into the earth, and only his head and tail was sticking out of the ground. However, despite the amount of force that was used to strike him, Molt appeared to be unscathed. He looked at Spyro menacingly. "Do you hate me?" he asked. "It's fine if you do, but my pain is far greater than yours!" He bellowed as he summoned many pillars of stone to rise up underneath Spyro, pinning him to the ceiling.

Spyro broke through the pillars and grabbed Molt by his face with the arm that was coming out of his back. He extended another dark arm and tore Molt's head right off his body and dismembered his limbs. After Dark Spyro was done with Molt, his body was lifeless and in pieces. For a few seconds, Spyro thought he had won, but Molt's head opened its eyes and started to make choking noises. He vomited out another copy of himself. "Don't underestimate the Bringer of Pain!" he roared. _I have to avoid his attacks more often, I'll run out of mana if I have to reincarnate myself over and over again! _Molt thought. Spyro roared back. The mass of shadowy smoke that surrounded his body grew larger, and he got up on his hind legs. Spyro stuck out both his paws at Molt and shot a huge beam of dark energy at him from both his paws and his maw.

Molt, who had just been reincarnated and was still emerging from his old body, didn't have time to dodge. He raised a wall of stone, trying to block from the attack, but the beam shot right through and he was still hit by it. The beam pummeled him into the wall. Before he knew it, there was a large cavity in his belly and he was inside a huge dent in the wall. Dark Spyro dove at him, grabbed Molt by his forelegs and crushed them. Molt coughed out blood, and roared in pain. _Ugh... how can this fool be more powerful than me? _Molt thought as Spyro continued to claw at him.

Molt coated his claws in purple acid and sunk them into Spyro's flesh, causing him to let out a yelp of pain and let go of Molt. _There's no way... I'm losing to this guy! _Molt let out an ear-piercing screech and a purple aura of convexity surrounded him. "There's no way... I'm losing to the likes of you!" The cavity in Molt's belly started to fill itself, and the purple energy around him turned into a huge purple figure that resembled the top half of his body, sticking out of Molt's back. Molt continued to let out enraged roars as the purple figure slammed a claw down on Dark Spyro.

"This is my convexity clone. Nobody has ever survived this before. Prepare to die." Molt's clone pressed down harder on Spyro's body, threatening to crush him. Dark Spyro roared and created a small explosion of dark energy around him, causing the convexity clone to let go. Dark Spyro got up quickly and shot out another beam of dark energy. Molt used the other arm of the convexity clone to block the beam. The clone picked Spyro up and threw him into a wall of the cavern. Molt and the clone took in deep breaths at the same time, and they both shot out powerful beams of dark energy from their maws. Spyro was hit by the beam but didn't take as much damage as Molt had as he managed to counter the beam using his convexity. He waited patiently for Molt to run out of breath. After his beam had run out, Molt took in another deep breath, preparing for another attack. However, he started to cough out blood uncontrollably and fell to his knees. "Damn it!" He continued coughing until the convexity clone disappeared from his back. Subsequently, he collapsed to the ground. He had reached his limit.

Dark Spyro took this as an advantage and started to slowly walk towards Molt, moving in for the kill. If Spyro had not been in his dark form, he would probably not have done so, but right now the darkness had taken over him, and he wanted Molt to pay for what he had made Cynder go through. He wanted Molt to feel pain.

...

Cynder had witnessed Spyro turn into his dark form, attack Molt and use powers that she had never seen him used before. She lay down in a corner of the cavern, watching the fight. _This isn't Spyro... it's something else... _she thought, trying to convince herself that Spyro would never do such things, even if he really hated someone. Spyro had Molt pinned down under him, and he was clawing and beating his face. Cynder forced herself to get up and ran clumsily towards Spyro. She put her paws around his neck from behind him and nuzzled her head on his shoulder. "Spyro, please, stop. Please, come back to me. Don't do this," she begged.

Dark Spyro turned his head to look at her. His eyes slowly changed back to normal and his scales and horns returned to their original color. His fangs and claws shrunk back to their original size. Spyro looked at his claws. They were covered in Molt's blood. He vaguely remembered the bloodthirsty feeling that had taken over him, filling his mind with an intent only to kill and cause his enemy to suffer. It wasn't like him at all. "Wha... What have I done?" he asked, suddenly sounding afraid.

Molt kicked Spyro off from him. "Don't... underestimate... the Bringer... of Pain!" Molt said between pants. He roared and growled like a wild animal that had been provoked, trying to squeeze out more power from himself. Unfortunately, he had already used up all of his mana and could not build up enough strength to launch another elemental attack. He charged towards Spyro and tried to strike him. Unfortunately for him, Spyro quickly stepped to the side to avoid him, and Molt pummeled himself headfirst into the wall instead. Realizing his defeat, he let out a roar of anger and dropped to the ground.

* * *

**A.N. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Once again, I think this was too violent for a 'T' rating, but whatever. By the way, if there are a lot of grammatical errors I'm sorry, it's just that I was half asleep when I was proof-reading this. Anyway, tell me how garbage I was in the reviews :D**

**The Dark Death: So guess what? You just got blocked, buddy.**

**MurasakiKuroAkai: Yeah, I should probably change that, I'm just a little confused whether I should make Cynder's scales dark purple or black. As for Molt, his ability to 'vomit' out stuff is based on his special abilities he was born with. The black rods were merely just to pin Spyro to the ground. I kind of did reference Naruto there again, like how Orochimaru always pukes out his weapons and how Tendo Pain pinned Naruto to the ground.**

**Not A Guest: Hope this chapter satisfied you.**


	11. Chapter 11: Redeemed

**Chapter 11: Redeemed**

* * *

Molt slowly got up and held his throbbing head with a paw. "Go ahead! Kill me!" he shouted. His face and body was covered in his blood. His snarl revealed his bloody teeth and with blood dripping down the side of his mouth. His face was bruised and scarred, and the scales on his body were torn apart. "That's what you all wanted, wasn't it? For me to just die and go away forever? Fulfill that wish, kill me!" Molt scowled at the two dragons.

"Don't say that... I'm sure the citizens at Warfang would never want such a thing..." Cynder said, remembering what Volteer had said about Molt and feeling a little sorry for him.

"And how the hell would you know that? You don't know the true meaning of pain! Why the hell would you understand anything about me at all? You don't know what kind of suffering my existence has brought me! So shut the hell up!"

A tear escaped from Cynder's eye. "I know how you feel."

Molt's stopped snarling and calmed down a little. "Wh...What?"

"I know how you feel so well that it hurts. Like you said earlier, the Dark Master corrupted me and turned me into his puppet... I'm not proud of the things I've done, and I know how it's like to be misunderstood." she sobbed, thinking about how Sparx used to blame her for everything she had done before, how Chief Prowlus had also blamed her and what the Hermit had said to her.

"Then... Then why? Why do you side with the ones who despised your existence?" Molt asked.

"I wouldn't be who I am right now, if it wasn't for my friend Spyro. He was the only one who understands me, he knows how I feel, he cares for me," Cynder told him.

Molt started to snarl again. "Don't toy with me! Just because one dragon can understand you isn't a good reason to side with the ones who hate you! I am the Bringer of Pain! I was born to be the next dark master! I was created to bring destruction to the world! I'm nothing but a monster in a dragon's shell!" He roared angrily.

"You're not a monster! Neither are you any of the things you just mentioned! You're Molt! A dragon from Warfang!" Cynder yelled back at him.

Molt's eyes widened. That was the first time anyone had ever acknowledged him for who he really was, and had not called him 'monster' or 'that thing'. "But they... they're all laughing... at the cost of my misery! I'll turn those laughs into screams and wails for mercy!"

"Isn't just one person who loves and cares for you more than enough? Isn't one person who truly understands you and wants to be your friend good enough? What more could you want?" Cynder asked. "Revenge won't give you anything. If you kill everyone in Warfang, is it going to make you feel happy? Even if it does, what'll it do for you other than to make you even more lonely?"

Tears welled up in Molt's eyes. His eyes started to change. His sclera turned from red to white and his irises returned to their original color which was a bright crimson. His pupil turned to a natural black. His eyes were no longer as demonic as they were before, although his irises were red. His body stopped emitting black smoke, and revealed a few purple stripes and marks on his dark gray scales. He also started to shrink a bit, and his horns and spikes became shorter. He had three horns on each side of his head, one of them pointing upwards and two others pointing down. Each of the horns had purple markings at their tips. He looked almost the same age as Spyro and Cynder, maybe a bit older. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Cynder, ex-Terror Of The Skies and co-savior of this world." she smiled, noticing the change in Molt's emotions. The dark side of her body also started to fade away, her scales returning to their original obsidian color.

"Cynder... I think I will believe you..." Molt said as he used the last of his mana to heal his wounds with a strange red light on his paws. "But can I know, who is this purple dragon next to you?"

"He's none other than Spyro. The one who freed me from the Dark Master and cared for me."

"Spyro..." Molt said, looking at Spyro with respect in his eyes. "May I... be your friend as well? I... I'll try to be a good friend..."

Cynder was shocked at how easily influenced Molt was, but she knew how it felt like to be understood by nobody and looked down on. She knew how desperate Molt was for a friend and could more or less understand how he felt.

Spyro had remained silent throughout the conversation. He was busy listening to what Cynder had to say to Molt. He personally didn't have a very dark past, and had not truly experienced the hell of solitude before. Cynder nudged him, jolting him out of his thoughts. "What do you think, Spyro?" she asked. "Can he join us?"

Sparx quickly came out of his hiding place. "Wait, wait, wait. We're not recruiting another evil psychopath, right?" Spyro ignored his comment. "You can come with us back to Warfang, Molt. Maybe we can find a way to help you. I know that you were born with dark magic and were shunned because of that. Maybe there's a way we can make others ignore the fact that you have dark magic inside you and acknowledge you for who you truly are."

"Warfang? But what if they chase me out?" he asked.

"We'll vouch for you. Don't worry," Spyro assured him.

"Wait, how do we know we can trust you? A few minutes ago, you were trying to kill everyone in the world, and now you're not?" Sparx questioned Molt.

"Killing everyone in the world won't do anything except to make me even lonelier." Molt sighed. "I didn't think I would ever tell you this, but I was sort of... being controlled."

"Well, the Dark Master's gone, so you better have a good explanation." Sparx folded his arms.

"I'll explain. As you might already know, I was born with dark magic inside of me. Dark magic is more or less the same as mana, and can be used as an energy source for elemental attacks. But dark magic has one huge difference from mana. It has its own will, which it combines with power, to become stronger than regular magic. So for example, if someone tries to use dark magic without the proper training, they would most likely be controlled by its will, which corrupts them with an undying thirst for blood and a feeling of hatred towards everything they see. As for me, one half of my soul is used to control that will. On the day that I left Warfang, I lost control over the dark magic's will and was consumed by it. Although I was aware of what I was doing ever since, I had no control over my actions. If you haven't noticed yet, my eyes were a different color when I was corrupted."

Sparx gave him a suspicious look. Molt's explanation seemed to make sense to him. "Alright, Molt. You've bought yourself some time. For now."

"Oh, wait! Before we leave, let me patch up your wounds. It's the least I could do." Molt walked towards the exit of the cavern and went back through the tunnel that Spyro and Cynder had gone through to find him. He found a small deposit of green crystals and shattered them.

Spyro and Cynder shot him confused looks. "With green crystals?" they asked at the same time.

"I'll show you, but try not to freak out." The same bright red light that he had used to heal himself earlier on appeared in Molt's paws. "Alright, this might hurt a little, but try to stay still." He put his paws on Spyro and Cynder's shoulders and they started to glow bright red as well. Their wounds and cuts started closing themselves and their bruises faded away. Molt's paws had healed them as if they were red spirit gems.

"That was amazing!" Spyro said, impressed at Molt's ability.

"It's part of my special powers," Molt explained.

"So, shall we head back to the city?" Cynder asked.

"Sure," Spyro and Molt both replied.

As Spyro, Cynder, Molt and Sparx headed back to the exit of Warfang ruins, Molt was deep in thought about what had happened to him for the past few years he had spent inside the ruins. _It must've been the will of the dark magic... but even dark magic isn't strong enough to control me for that long... Or could it be... no... can't be... he was defeated long ago... _Molt was staring blankly into space as the four of them walked out the tunnels back into the ancient city that was buried in the ground.

Noticing that Molt was looking a little dreamy, Spyro nudged him softly to get his attention. "Something wrong?" he asked. "No... I was just thinking about something," Molt replied. His brain froze for a second once he realized what Spyro had asked him. This was the first time someone had ever asked him if something was wrong and offered help to him. A warm smile crept onto his face. _So this is what it's like to have a friend..._

* * *

**A.N. One question. Did this make you feel the slightest bit emotional? Tell me how garbage I was in the reviews :D**

* * *

**Whoops, there weren't any reviews for the last chapter, which isn't a big surprise, because nobody really reads this garbage I call a story anyway.**


	12. Chapter 12: Return

**Chapter 12: Return**

* * *

Meanwhile in Warfang, the three guardians were busy fighting against the horde of resurrected dragons that Molt had conjured. They had defeated the former guardians already and were fending off the rest of the dead dragons. Although they were outnumbered by the vast number of enemies, they were doing a pretty good job of holding them back. They had ordered the guards to get the townsfolk to safety, and most of the resurrected dragons were not very strong, and the guardians had no problem at defeating them.

"There's no end to these things!" Cyril shouted in frustration as he kicked a dragon that had been creeping up from behind him.

"Now, now, Cyril! Didn't you ask Spyro not to question your abilities earlier on?" Volteer chuckled as he shot a bolt of electricity from his body at another dragon.

"Are you insane, Volteer? We're in the middle of defending from an attack here! Now's not the time to joke!" Cyril snapped.

"Why not? It can be a useful way for us to remain calm! Besides, what else can we do besides to keep killing these things to pass the time? We have to wait for Spyro, remember?"

Cyril would have smacked Volteer in the face for still being so cheerful and calm during an attack on the city, but he was too busy fighting off the zombie dragon horde.

"Speaking of Spyro, I hope he's been able to find Molt," Terrador suddenly spoke.

The three guardians continued fighting the endless horde of dragons until suddenly, many empty coffins appeared and sucked all the resurrected dragons back inside them. Then, they closed and sunk into the ground.

"Well, well. Looks like Spyro's done his part of the heroism," Volteer commented as he watched the coffins disappear into the earth.

The three guardians looked around and saw no hostile creatures. They flew up into the air. "Spread out and search the city. Make sure there isn't anything dangerous," Terrador ordered as he broke away from Volteer and Cyril, who were hovering next to each other.

After spreading out and spending a few minutes looking around, the three of them could not find any signs of hostile activity and landed back at the gate that had been broken down. Terrador blocked it off with a wall of earth temporarily.

"So, what do we do now?" Cyril asked Terrador.

"We wait for Spyro and Cynder to return. Hopefully they are alright. I could only imagine that they have stopped Molt, which is why the dragons that he resurrected are gone," he answered.

...

Soon, three faint figures could be seen flying towards the direction of Warfang. Terrador, Cyril and Volteer were standing on the walls of the city, awaiting Spyro's return. They saw the three figures and were a little confused.

"Wait a second, do my eyes deceive me, or are there three dragons flying towards the city?" Cyril asked.

Terrador nodded. "Yes, there are indeed three dragons heading towards our direction. I see them as well."

Terrador and Cyril turned look at to where Volteer had been standing at, wanting to know what he saw, but Volteer had already flew up front, eager to welcome Spyro and Cynder back to the city.

Soon, Volteer flew up to the four friends that had returned and started greeting and welcoming them to the city as if they had never been to Warfang before. "Yes, it's good to see you too, Volteer," Spyro chuckled as Volteer rattled on like a machine gun. Molt was familiar with who Volteer was, but he hadn't actually spoken to him before. He found it amusing that Volteer talked a lot and was sometimes a little funny.

Volteer continued to ramble, and eventually his attention turned to Molt. "Oh, by the way, Spyro, who is this friend you have brought back? I seem have seen him before, but I can't remember who he is!" he told Spyro while giving him a curious look. Terrador and Cyril caught up and hovered next to him, also wanting to know who this new black dragon was.

"He's Molt. In his normal form. He was being controlled by the dark magic's will," Spyro explained.

"Oh, that is intriguing! Is he really Molt? He looks a little different from what I remember! And he was controlled by the dark magic's will? That is truly fascinating! Please, do explain!" Volteer babbled on, interested in the fact that dark magic actually had its own will.

Molt explained the concept of dark magic to the three guardians, telling them about how dark magic binds its will with its power to become stronger than normal magic, and how he had been taken over by its will.

"Interesting. I never knew that. But what triggered the dark magic to release its control?" asked Terrador.

"When the medium that the dark magic is possessing with its will undergoes a strong emotional turn or change, its will is not able to handle it and will most likely release its control. However, what mostly triggers the will of the dark magic to take over is when the medium feels extremely sad or enraged, because the mind is the weakest when feeling both those emotions," Molt said.

_Just like how Spyro transforms whenever he's sad or angry... _Cynder thought. "But is there anyway to prevent yourself being controlled by dark magic and still use its power?" she asked.

"Yes. It is possible, but only those with extremely strong willpower can overpower the dark magic's will easily. Otherwise, a part of their soul must be used to control it, which isn't the safest method, considering what happened to me. To control dark magic, it's basically just taking in its power while blocking out its will. While it sounds easy, it requires special training to do so," Molt explained.

Cynder nodded. _Then I wonder if he might be able to teach me... I don't want to be used ever again... it felt horrible when Malefor made me hit Spyro... But wait... when Spyro and I are being controlled by dark magic, our eyes turn pure white... Then why is it that when Molt is being controlled... he... nevermind... he's probably special or something._

_..._

An hour or so passed, and the guardians had given Molt a room and announced his return to the city. Although most of the citizens weren't very happy for his return, Molt didn't seem to be too bothered by them.

Spyro, Cynder, Molt and Sparx were walking around town. Despite having lived in Warfang for most of his childhood, Molt felt as if he had never set foot into the city before as Spyro had rearranged it. As for Spyro, Cynder and Sparx, they had been to Warfang before but had not been able to fully explore it due to the war, and after Malefor was defeated, they didn't get much time to lookl around before Molt showed up.

The four of them strolled leisurely through the city market as the sun started to set, occasionally stopping to look at one of the stalls. At one point, Cynder stopped to look at a pair of anklets in a stall, while the three other friends stood around her and waited.

Behind the four friends, two stall owners were whispering to each other. "Is he... that thing?" one of them asked the other while gesturing to Molt, unaware that Molt could actually hear him. "Yeah, has Spyro gone mad? Bringing that monster back to the city?" the other owner replied. Molt spun around. His eyes burned with fury. "Shut up! I'm not 'that thing'! My name is Molt! And I'm a dragon!" With that, he went up angrily to the two stall owners and reduced their stalls to nothing. Many of the other passers-by stopped to look at what the commotion was about and glared at Molt when they saw him. "What? Never seen a dragon before?" he shouted as he ran out of the market.

"Molt!" Spyro cried. "Come back!" He started to go after him, but Cynder stopped him. "I'll talk to him," she said softly. She flew after Molt.

Eventually, Cynder caught up with Molt, and he was sitting in a corner of the gardens next to the temple. "Hey." She sat down next to him.

"It's the same as before... everyone still gives me the same look like they did... " he said sadly.

"That's why you should give them a reason not to look at you as a monster."

Molt looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"You see, the reason why I was hated before was because of the things I did when I was under Malefor's control. But after Spyro saved me and I helped him defeat the Dark Master, I became a hero that everyone respects. I can't guarantee that you'll have a chance to be a hero, but maybe you should try helping out a little and making more friends."

Molt nodded. "I'll give it some thought..."

Cynder smiled. "Good. So do you wanna continue walking with me and Spyro or do you just want to stay here?"

"I think I'll stay here for a while."

"Suit yourself." Cynder gave Molt a pat on his back and flew back towards the market.

When Cynder got back to the stall that she had left Spyro and Sparx at, Spyro was eagerly waiting for her with Sparx taking a nap on his head. He had a box in his paw, but she wasn't sure what was inside it. "Molt said he was staying in the gardens," she told him as she landed in front of him.

Spyro nodded and opened up the box that was in his paw. "Here, I saw you looking at this earlier and decided to get it for you." Inside the box were the anklets that Cynder had been looking at earlier. They were like silver bands coated with emeralds that matched the color of Cynder's eyes. They seemed perfect for her.

Cynder took the box gently from Spyro's paws and admired his gift to her. Spyro just stood there and smiled awkwardly. To his surprise, Cynder walked up to him and gave him a playful lick on his cheek. Spyro's blood rose to his cheeks as he blinked groggily, feeling a little dazed at what Cynder had just done.

"Thank you, Spyro. These are beautiful."

Spyro shook his head and snapped out of his trance. "Don't mention it, I wouldn't have been able to get it for you if the owner wasn't so generous."

They would have started moving their heads closer again if Sparx had not gotten up at that time and ruined the mood.

Realizing that he had made the same mistake twice, Sparx decided to just leave Spyro and Cynder alone for a while. "Alright, I'm just gonna... go check on Molt. You said he was in the gardens right? I'll just... go there then." He flew off quickly.

Cynder almost let out a squeal of delight, happy that she had Spyro all to herself for the rest of the day. The two dragons continued to walk through the market as the sun set, enjoying each other's company.

...

When Sparx reached the gardens, he saw Molt taking a stroll along the flowers and plants. He quickly went over to Molt. "Hey, are you ok?" he asked, noticing that Molt looked a little blue.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Your name was Sparx, right?" Molt replied as he looked up to face Sparx.

"Yeah. I decided to chill with you for a bit, and let Spyro and his she-dragon be alone for a while."

Molt nodded and continued walking.

Molt sauntered through the gardens with Sparx hovering next to him for a while in silence before Sparx suddenly spoke up.

"Y'know, if you wanna be liked and all, you should do all you can to make it happen."

Molt nodded again. "Cynder told me that earlier."

"Yeah, well... even I'm having trouble being noticed around here. I mean, sure, Spyro and Cynder are good friends to me and all, and we save the world and stuff together, but everyone's attention is on them, not me."

A faint smile appeared on Molt's muzzle. "Well, I didn't see you helping when Spyro and Cynder were fighting me."

Sparx rolled his eyes. "True, but just 'cause a bunch of weird stuff doesn't fly out of my mouth doesn't mean I didn't help them. They wouldn't even be able to see in the tunnels if not for me."

"Well, I guess that's true... but I just want to be acknowledged as a normal dragon, like one of them..."

Sparx smiled. "That's why you gotta keep trying."

Molt widened one of his eyes and narrowed the other.

"If you wanna be acknowledged, you gotta never give up. You gotta keep going no matter what happens. And even if you don't really earn as much respect as Spyro and she-dragon do, the only person who can never lose faith in you," Sparx pointed at Molt, "is you."

Molt smiled in response. "Then I guess I'm going to become a hero, no matter what it takes. I'll make everyone acknowledge and respect me!"

"That's the spirit, man! We'll show those guys!" Sparx grinned and held his fist out.

Molt curled his paw up into a fist and gently bumped Sparx's fist.

Sparx sighed internally. It wasn't really like him to lecture others like that, and he thought he had sounded really lame, but he was glad that Molt got the message that he was trying to send.

The two of them continued to go through the gardens, chatting and sharing jokes with each other.

...

Spyro and Cynder had finished walking through the market and were walking along the top of the walls of the city. They had been there once when they were helping to fight the war, but were too busy to realize how good of a view they had of the city from up there. They sat down next to each other and watched the sun set. It was almost down already as they had been walking for quite a while, but they still enjoyed watching it as they sat together.

Cynder leaned her head against Spyro's shoulder and slowly twined her tail around his. Spyro blushed furiously and turned away, hoping to hide his blush from Cynder.

"Spyro?"

Spyro turned his head a little. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for walking with me. I appreciate your time."

Spyro nodded. "Uh... No problem..."

Cynder giggled and playfully nudged Spyro's neck with her head. Spyro laughed nervously. He was sure that he truly loved Cynder now, but did she love him back? Was she trying to tell him something with all these actions? He couldn't hold back any longer.

"Cynder?"

"Yeah?"

"I..."

Cynder's eyes widened as wide grin appeared on her muzzle. Was this it? Was she going to hear the three magical words that would change everything?

"I..."

"Go on," she encouraged him.

"I... love... to spend time with you." Spyro let out a deep sigh. He just couldn't do it. Something in his gut had told him to stop.

Cynder sighed as well. "I love spending time with you too, Spyro..." her disappointment could be detected in her tone. Clearly she had expected Spyro to say something else.

Meanwhile, Molt and Sparx were at another side of the walls, taking a stroll as well. They stopped when they saw Spyro and Cynder sitting with each other. Cynder's tail was wrapped around Spyro's, and she was leaning on Spyro's shoulder.

"Those two really like each other, don't they?" Molt commented.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't say 'like', because their relationship is sorta... different." Sparx said suggestively.

Molt didn't really know what Sparx meant, but he felt happy to see two of his best and only friends cuddling together like that.

The sun had finished setting, and the moon was coming up. "Well, I think I'm gonna eat some dinner and go to bed. See you tomorrow." Sparx flew towards the direction of the temple. "Wait up! I'm coming, too!" Molt leaped off the walls and glided after Sparx.

* * *

**A.N. This chapter was slightly longer than my other ones, I hope you enjoyed it. By the way if you're enjoying the story do leave a review or something, it really helps me to keep going. Tell me how garbage I was in the reviews :D**

* * *

**MurasakiKuroAkai: Some of my characters will have similar backgrounds to some of those in Naruto, and I'll most likely be using the values that were taught in the show too. I don't know about you, but I think the messages being sent in some of the episodes are quite meaningful.**

**Not a Guest: Here you go.**


	13. Chapter 13: The Missing Dragon

**Chapter 13: The Missing Dragon**

* * *

The night passed and the sun came up. Molt woke up as the sunlight filtered through the window onto his face. He got up went down to the dining hall for breakfast.

He stepped into the hall. Apart from Spyro, Cynder and Sparx, the hall seemed to be empty. _I wonder where the guardians are at, _he thought to himself. He walked towards his three friends.

"Hey! Molt! About time you woke up!" Sparx dropped the fruit he was nibbling on and flew over to Molt. "Sorry I overslept," Molt chuckled.

Molt went over to the table and sat down opposite to Spyro. "So, what are we doing today?" he asked.

Spyro shrugged. "Don't know, now that I think of it, after the war is over, there's not much interesting left to do."

"Maybe we can ask the guardians if there's anything we can help with," Molt suggested, wanting to find a way to be useful and liked.

"Sounds good. What do you think, Cynder?" Spyro turned and looked at Cynder.

"No comment," she said while cracking a faint smile on her muzzle.

...

After eating breakfast, the four friends walked around the temple in search of the guardians, and they eventually found the three of them talking with a fire dragon. _I've never seen him before, I wonder who he could be,_ Spyro thought as he looked at the new dragon. Near to them, a familiar-looking cheetah was sitting down outside the entrance to a room in the temple.

Spyro's eyes widened in recognition. "Hunter! Where've you been?" Spyro raced towards Hunter and tackled him into a hug.

Hunter laughed and got up. "It's good to see you again, Spyro. I was sent on another mission by the guardians. Sorry I wasn't in the city to welcome you back."

"Don't worry about it," Cynder smiled, also glad to see him.

"Ssh, you're making too much noise," Sparx quoted Hunter in a gruff voice, making shushing sounds at Cynder.

Molt stepped forward nervously. Who was this cat-man? He seemed to be well acquainted with his three other friends.

Hunter noticed the other black dragon in front of him. "And who is this?" he asked Spyro.

"He's my friend Molt. It's kind of a long story."

Molt walked up to Hunter and introduced himself. Hunter smiled warmly at him and also said a few words about himself.

After a few more minutes of chatting and catching up, Spyro started to get curious about Hunter's 'mission'.

"By the way, what was that mission the guardians sent you on? It must be really important, considering that they sent you right after the world was fixed," Spyro said.

"Well, if you take a look around, there are probably more moles in the dragon city than dragons. The reason for this is because many dragons were either killed or sent into hiding by Malefor. But now that he's defeated, it's safe for those in hiding to come back out, and my mission was to inform them and escort them back to the city."

"Hopefully you don't take another three years," Sparx said jokingly.

"No. Actually, they're all assembled in this room," he replied while gesturing to the doors next to him. "I found them hiding in some kind of underground city, similar to the Warfang ruins but probably a bit smaller."

Before anyone could reply, the three guardians and the fire dragon they were talking to approached group of them.

"Well done, Hunter. You worked pretty fast, considering the amount of time you took to find Spyro and Cynder. Anyhow, there is one slight problem." said Cyril in his strong accent.

The fire dragon stepped forward. "Yes, it has come to my attention that one of the dragons, Flame, has gone missing. He was with us when we were heading back, but he doesn't seem to be here right now."

"We can help you find him!" Molt's face lit up at his opportunity to become noticed. Spyro and Cynder seemed hesitant at his idea at first, but they decided that finding the lost dragon was probably the only thing they could do to keep themselves occupied.

The fire dragon stepped back and blinked a few times, feeling a little shocked at Molt's reaction. "Well, um... I see no harm in letting you try. But if you would like to know more about Flame I suggest you talk to some of the other dragons. I'm sure they can give you a better description of him than I can."

"Who are you, by the way?" Spyro asked.

"My name is Aurelius, and I am the leader of these dragons that your friend Hunter has brought back. We were sent into hiding underground by Malefor's forces, but I see that now the war has ended. And I believe I have you and Cynder to thank for that." With that, he opened the doors to the room next to Hunter.

Inside it were close to a hundred dragons of various types and ages, although a majority of them were older. Their chatter died down as soon as they noticed Aurelius' presence.

"Alright, everyone. I'm sure you all know by now that Flame has gone missing, and the dragons here at Warfang have been kind enough to offer their help. Please fill them in as much as possible about Flame."

Spyro noticed that there was a pink dragoness who appeared to be the youngest among the group. She looked the same age as him as well, and was sitting in a corner, all alone. He slowly approached her as Molt and Cynder asked around about Flame.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked her.

"Yes, I'm fine... It's just that... my friend Flame is missing..." she said in a nervous tone. She appeared to be very shy.

"Don't worry about him. I'm sure we'll be able to find him. What's your name?"

"Ember..." she answered.

"Alright Ember, I need you to tell me as much as you can about Flame so I can find him."

Ember nodded and started telling Spyro about Flame and how he looked like.

Meanwhile, Molt had also gathered some information about Flame. As the dragons that Hunter had brought back did not know about Molt and his dark powers, they seemed to be a lot friendlier and more cooperative with him. Sparx was also hovering beside him throughout the entire time. He seemed to like Molt a lot.

As for Cynder, although she was one of the main reasons that the dragons had gone into hiding and was responsible for many deaths among them, they knew that they had her to thank for the end of the war and Malefor's defeat. Though some dragons seemed to still bear a small grudge against her, after she had explained that she was under the Dark Master's control, they seemed to understand that it wasn't her fault cooled down a little.

The two friends noticed one thing. The other dragons seemed to talk about Flame like he was some kind of criminal, and most of them seemed to detest him.

Eventually, the three dragons and the dragonfly got back together. "Alright, so everyone's clear on how Flame looks like and how to identify him?" Spyro asked.

"He's the mohawk," Sparx said.

Molt laughed a little while Spyro snorted and Cynder rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, let's just go find him. I heard that he was with them until they were crossing a forest that was near the Valley of Avalar," Cynder said.

"Then we should go search there first. Any objections?" Spyro questioned.

There was no answer.

"Alright. Off we go."

...

The four friends slowly flew through the forest that Cynder had mentioned, calling out Flame's name and scanning the area for him. Spyro was leading the group as Sparx sat on his head, while Cynder and Molt followed behind him.

For a few minutes they could see nothing but the vast jungle and plants until all of a sudden, Spyro suddenly stopped moving forward, causing Molt and Cynder to almost bump into him. He hovered there and blinked dumbly.

Cynder nudged him. "What is it?"

"Nothing. Keep searching."

They continued flying deeper into the forest. Spyro was looking around, trying to spot anything that was unusual. Suddenly, he saw it again. A red flash among the trees and vines. He stopped again. _Must've been my imagination, _he thought and quickly flew ahead. Molt's eyes were darting from left to right. He had seen the same red flash that Spyro had, and could almost sense someone else's presence.

After a few more minutes of searching, Molt suddenly came to a halt. He was definitely sure that someone else was following them.

"Come out already! How long do you intend to follow us? Show yourself!" As soon as his mouth closed, a red dragon darted out of the bushes towards him and raised a claw. Molt quickly got out of the way of his attack and whipped him with his tail. The dragon staggered back a little but managed to keep in the air. He flew towards Molt as fire gushed out of his mouth. Molt quickly countered with his own flames.

Spyro shot a bolt of electricity at the dragon, but he managed to avoid it and move out of Molt's fire. Sparx was caught off guard by the sudden battle and quickly got off Spyro's head to take cover behind a tree. Cynder used her siren scream and paralyzed the dragon and disabled his wings, sending him hurtling towards the ground.

The crimson dragon lay on the ground, unable to move. Molt held him down with a paw on his neck as Cynder's attack wore off. However, the dragon managed to break free and shot a fireball at Molt, nearly taking his head off.

Molt took a few steps back, recovering from the shock. The red creature seized the opportunity and darted towards him and tried to strike again. Unfortunately, Molt was unable to evade the attack and was hit by a fiery claw at the side of his face, causing him to spin around and fall.

Spyro quickly shot a beam of convexity and struck the fire dragon in the back. Taken by surprise, the red creature roared in agony as he tried to resist the force of the beam. Then, Cynder flew above him and caught him in her cyclone breath, causing him to start swirling around with the flow of the wind.

Molt got up from the ground and brushed the blood off the side of his mouth. He held out his paw and formed a vacuum in it, similar to the time when he had fought Spyro. The red dragon was sucked into his claws and shoved into the ground as he coughed out blood. Molt slammed his paws on the ground and the roots of the trees rose up from the earth and wrapped them around his legs, restricting his movement.

Seeing that the fight was over, Sparx heaved a sigh of relief and went to join his three dragon friends. Upon closer inspection, the four friends realized that the dragon that had attacked them was Flame, the one they were looking for.

His scales were carmine and his belly, wings and horns were gold. His head had two long horns at the upper left and right sides with a strip of orange spikes from the middle of his forehead all the way to his tail. He pretty much matched the descriptions of the other dragons. "I told you he was the mohawk," Sparx whispered into Spyro's ear.

"Is your name Flame?" Spyro questioned the dragon.

"How do you know? Who are you? Let me go!" The carmine-scaled dragon replied as he tried to break free from the grip of the roots.

"We're helping your master Aurelius and his dragons to find you," Cynder told him.

"Save your lies! They're not looking for me! You probably have them locked up somewhere and just want to bring me along as well! And that's not going to happen!"

"Listen! We're not the bad guys! If we were, we would have killed you by now! So stop arguing and just follow us!" Molt shouted, sounding agitated by what Flame had said.

"Ugh..." Flame tried once more to break free from the roots but to no avail. "I guess I don't have a choice, do I? But you listen closely, if I see a single sign of betrayal or suspicion I will kill you all."

"Fine. Not that you're actually capable of doing so," Cynder replied.

Molt loosened the roots of the trees and sent them back into the ground.

Before Flame could run away, Spyro froze his body up to his neck, leaving him looking like some sort of giant ice cube with a dragon's head.

"Hey! That's not funny!" Flame growled, annoyed at what Spyro had done. He tried to breathe fire, but his body temperature was too cold for him to do so, and nothing but warm air came out of his maw.

"Sorry, just had to make sure you won't run away," Spyro grinned.

"You're pushing the ice cube back, right?" Cynder smirked.

...

Eventually, the five of them returned to Warfang and arrived at the temple. Spyro slumped onto a cushion in the dining hall, exhausted from pushing Flame all the way back from the forest. Cynder and Molt had went to find Aurelius after eating lunch, leaving him alone with Sparx and Flame.

Flame was shivering uncontrollably, unable to keep his body temperature from dropping. "Ca-can... y-you... at least... un-unfreeze me?" he managed to raise his voice a little despite how cold he was feeling.

"Fine," Spyro replied as he exhaled some hot air to melt the ice. "But you're not going anywhere. Unless you want to be frozen again."

"Alright! Alright! I won't!" Flame barked, heating up his body to recover from the coldness.

"Ok, jeez, mohawk, no need to shout," said Sparx.

The doors at the other end of the hall opened, and Aurelius walked in with Molt and Cynder behind him.

"Ah, well done, young dragons. I see Flame is safe and sound," Aurelius said, sounding pleased.

"Eh, it was a bit of a challenge, but no problem for me," Sparx commented.

"Why would you be glad to see me, anyway?" Flame muttered under his breath.

"Well, now that you're here, you're free to roam the city and do whatever you want. The war is over and the Dark Master has ben defeated," Aurelius stated as he approached Flame.

"Ok! Ok! Can I at least eat my lunch?" Flame snapped back.

Spyro closed his eyes, dreading Aurelius' response to Flame's rude behavior, but to his surprise, Aurelius just smiled and walked off.

"Well what's his problem?" Sparx whispered into Spyro's ear.

"So... what do we do now?" Molt asked.

"Well, our mission is complete, so I guess we have the rest of the day to enjoy ourselves," Cynder said as she twined her tail around Spyro's, making him blush.

"Anyway, I'm going for a walk again, if any of you want to join me," said Cynder, leaning her head against Spyro's shoulder.

"I'll uh.. go with you then," Spyro answered nervously. "And by the way Molt, if you still want something to do, you can help us keep an eye on Flame. He's proved himself to be quite troublesome."

With that, the two love-dragons walked out of the dining hall, their tails still twined together.

"Well, I guess I'll be hanging out with you again," Sparx said as he rested on Molt's head.

* * *

**A.N. Another longer chapter than usual, hope you enjoyed it :) Tell me how garbage I was in the reviews :D**

* * *

**Not a Guest: I mean the garbage thing as a joke :)**


	14. Chapter 14: New Friends

**Chapter 14: New Friends**

* * *

Molt turned around to look at where Flame had been sitting. The crimson being was nowhere to be seen. Molt sighed. _Looks like Spyro was right about him... I better go look for him and find him before he gets into trouble,_ he thought to himself as he strolled out of the dining hall.

The black dragon exited the temple and looked around for any signs of Flame. He started walking around to search for him and got Sparx to help as well. They wandered the dragon city, looking for the young fire dragon.

Eventually, when Molt decided to go to the top of the city walls to get a better view of the city to search for his target, he somehow found Flame there.

"You wanna fight? You think I'm afraid of you?" Flame was standing in front of a cannon. The cannon resembled a dragon, and was made out of gold. Flame was poking at its head and taunting it.

"He's picking a fight... with the cannon?" Molt narrowed one eye and widened the other, and Sparx snickered behind his hand.

"Are you his owner?" Flame turned to look at a mole who was passing by.

"What are you talking about?" he replied, looking confused.

"You better teach this thing some manners, he was staring at me earlier, and it's rude to stare."

"That's just a cannon, what do you mean it stared at you?"

At that moment, a pink dragoness by the name of Ember flew over and landed next to Flame. "I'm sorry, he can be a bit stupid sometimes," she apologized to the mole.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Flame asked in a rude tone as the mole walked away. The dragoness flicked at his muzzle with her claws.

"Don't go around acting stupid like that! That thing isn't alive! Stop behaving like you're crazy!"

"How would you know? You didn't see him stare at you, did you?" Flame replied obnoxiously.

Molt and Sparx just stood there, watching the scene that was unfolding in front of them. Molt didn't know who Ember was, but he could tell that she was one of the new dragons who had arrived, and she looked almost as young as Flame and him.

To make things worse, two more dragons who were taking a walk on the walls passed by. One of them was a male, and the other was a female.

The male dragon had yellow scales. His head had two black horns on the sides that pointed towards the back, and the back of his head had a few spikes that were pointing downwards. His wings and belly were gray.

Next to him was a female earth dragon, her scales were a bright shade of green. She had two horns on the sides of her head, one of them pointing diagonally upward while the other pointed downward. The four horns on her head looked almost as clear and shiny as crystals.

Both of them looked a few years older than Flame and Ember, and were also part of the group of dragons that Hunter had brought back.

"Hey, Flame! Up to no good again?" The electric dragon asked in a haughty tone.

"You wanna fight, Zathos? Come at me!" Flame scowled menacingly as he set himself on fire and performed a comet dash at the yellow dragon. _His name is Zathos, huh,_ Molt thought as he closed his eyes, anticipating the impact of the attack. Ember squealed in fright and hid behind the cannon.

To Flame's surprise and annoyance, Zathos seemed to vanish right in front of him, and he charged past the green dragon that was standing next to Zathos and flew off the walls. Molt looked around in search of the electric dragon, and saw him standing next to the cannon. _He's fast... _Molt thought to himself.

Flame stopped flying forward and hovered in the air. He turned around and looked at Zathos, who was grinning smugly at him. "Hah, show-off! I'll wipe that smile off your ugly face!" Flame flew at Zathos and started to claw and swipe at him, but Zathos effortlessly avoided all of his attacks.

"Stand... still... you sparky mess!" Flame grunted as he continued to launch blows at him.

"That's enough," said the earth dragon, who was watching the fight with an unamused expression. She held out her paw. Her foreleg crystalized and extended forward. The crystal arm expanded and formed a wall between Zathos and Flame. It detached from her foreleg as she withdrew her leg.

She walked over to Zathos and rubbed her head against his neck. "Don't go around picking fights like that, you know how Flame can be," she said. Zathos snorted and nodded. "At least let me have some fun..." he mumbled.

Ember ran over to Flame and held him back before he could launch another attack. "Stop it!" she yelled. "Why are you so hot-headed and stupid?"

"He started it!" Flame protested, pointing at Zathos.

"You're the one who comet dashed at him!" Ember argued.

Flame sighed in defeat and turned around. He saw Molt and Sparx. "What do you guys want?" he asked in an obnoxious tone.

"I'm here to keep an eye on you. You've stirred up enough trouble," Molt replied firmly.

"Fine. But if you try anything funny, I'll fry you just like how I did to Zathos."

Zathos and the earth dragon strolled towards them. "What do you mean you fried me? You didn't even touch me!" Zathos chuckled. The earth dragon nudged him, telling him not to aggravate Flame. Zathos looked at Molt. "I'm guessing you're one of the locals here?" he asked.

"I'm not exactly a local, but I think I remember talking to you about Flame before. Your name is Zathos, isn't it?"

Zathos nodded. "Yup, and this is Kristal." he looked down at the female earth dragon who was leaning her head against his neck. She smiled warmly and said hello.

"Well, I was watching the fight earlier on, and you two seem to be kind of special..." Molt said, recalling Zathos' incredible speed and Kristal's crystal powers.

"Me? If you're talking about my speed, it's because I train really hard." Zathos shrugged. "Unlike someone," he added while coughing.

Kristal rolled her eyes. "For me, I was born with the ability to use both the ice and earth element, and when I combine the two together, I get crystals," she explained.

"How about you?" Zathos asked, wanting to know more about Molt.

"My name is Molt, I'm uh..." he was about to tell them his special ability, but he decided to keep it from them. "...nothing special, really."

"I'm sure you've got something special, maybe you just haven't found out yet," Zathos assured Molt.

_If you only knew... _Molt thought.

"I'm sure you've got something special, maybe you just haven't found out yet," Flame repeated in a babyish accent. "I'll beat you one day, and we'll see who's 'special' then!"

Zathos sighed. "Yes, you've told me that a lot of times already."

"Yeah, I'm just repeating myself to make sure you get it clear! Now get lost with your little girlfriend!"

Zathos snorted and walked off with Kristal.

_Today's going to be a long one... _Molt thought as he looked at Flame.

* * *

**A.N. Hope you enjoyed the chapter :) Anyway, I can't update this story as much as I used to, because my exams are nearing. Tell me how garbage I was in the reviews :D**

* * *

**Not a Guest: Here you go!**


	15. Chapter 15: Flame's Truth

**Chapter 15: Flame's Truth**

* * *

Molt sighed and slumped onto his bed. It had been an extremely busy and tiring day for him, having to look after Flame and prevent him from stirring up trouble. He was glad that Ember was there to help him, but Flame was still able to give them the slip a few times. However, he had been pretty successful at his job and had saved Flame's tail a couple of times.

"Long day, huh?" Sparx chuckled as he leaned on the frame of Molt's bed.

"As if you did anything," Molt snorted.

"Hey, hey, who was the one who found Flame when he ran off into the market?" Sparx asked, sounding annoyed.

"Alright, you did help a little," Molt rolled his eyes.

"Good that you know."

A short silence passed between the two of them.

"Hey, Sparx?" Molt spoke up.

"What's up?"

"Did you notice... Flame's kind of..."

"Stupid? Crazy? Rude?" Sparx suggested.

"No... I mean... everyone from the underground city seems to treat him as if he's... a criminal... or something," Molt said, recalling the various encounters with the other dragons and how they treated and talked to Flame. _They treat him almost like how the dragons here treat me..._ he thought.

"Well, with his kind of attitude, it's not a really a big surprise, right?" Sparx stated.

"Yeah, but... don't you think that it's a little too much, the way they look at him and talk to him? Do you think he did something?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know... anyway... I'm going to get some rest. I'm dead beat." Just as Molt was about to close his eyes, someone knocked on his door. "Ugh... who could that be?" He got up from his bed and staggered towards the door.

He opened the door to see Aurelius standing there with Spyro and Cynder behind him.

"Molt, was it?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. What is it you need?" Molt replied groggily.

"I just wanted to speak to you and your friends for a while. There's something I want you to know about Flame." Aurelius sounded serious, and Molt knew that this would have something to do with why the dragons were treating Flame the way they did. He knew exactly how it felt to be treated and looked at that way, with a million pairs of menacing eyes looking at you as if they were telling you to get out and never return.

"Uh..." Molt considered for a while, but his curiosity got the better of him. "Alright."

Just as the four dragons were about to leave, Sparx spoke up. "So I guess I don't need to know about any of this, is that right? Just because I don't shoot purple stuff outta' my mouth? No, nobody tells me anything! Why should anyone tell me anything?" he said in an obnoxious tone as he got up from Molt's bed and flew towards the talking dragons.

"Of course you can come, Sparx. We'd never forget you." Spyro, who was standing with Cynder behind Aurelius, tried to comfort him.

"Sure..." Sparx didn't seem convinced. He hovered onto Molt's head and rested there.

...

Aurelius took the four friends to the main hall of the temple, where the three guardians were sitting on the cushions that surrounded a long table.

"Ah, we've been expecting you all." Volteer was the first to greet them.

The four dragons took their seats on the cushions that were near to the guardians and Sparx remained on Molt's head.

"So, Aurelius, I believe there was something about Flame you wished to mention to us?" Cyril asked.

"Yes. It is of much importance, and I wish to inform you in advance," the fire dragon replied.

"Well? Spit it out already!" Sparx said, still annoyed that nobody had remembered him earlier.

"Show some respect!" Cynder snapped.

Sparx just snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Let's see... how should I put this..." Aurelius seemed hesitant to tell them. "Flame is... like... a simulated dark master."

The dragons he was talking to flinched slightly at his last three words.

"Er, do elaborate," said Volteer.

"When he was young, he had some of Malefor's dark energy sealed inside him. I wasn't there when it happened because I had went into the caves to get crystals, but when I got back to the underground city... it was disastrous."

Aurelius recalled the day where he had come back to his home and saw the dead bodies of dragons all over the place, and debris scattered everywhere.

Molt's eyes widened. "Wait, he had... Malefor's energy sealed in him?"

"Yes, he was meant to be our ultimate weapon in case Malefor ever found us hiding. I disagreed to the idea, and most of the other dragons did as well, but it was what had to be done."

"To do such a thing to a young dragon, it's rather inhumane, don't you think?" Terrador asked.

Aurelius sighed. "When the energy was being sealed in him, he wasn't able to control it and went on a rampage. We barely managed to contain him that day. And ever since that event took place, everyone treated him differently."

"Oh... so that's why he was being so annoying! Well, if you take a look at our buddy Molt here, he's also-" Molt quickly covered Sparx's mouth before he could finish his sentence.

"What is it?" Aurelius asked.

Terrador looked at Molt. "Should we tell him?"

Molt sighed and looked down. "I will, but please don't tell anyone else."

"I won't," Aurelius said assuringly.

Molt proceeded to tell Aurelius about the dark energy he was born with, and how he had been controlled by it for a few years.

"I know how Flame was treated, and I know how he felt," Molt finished.

"Interesting. I guess maybe you understand him more than I do."

Molt nodded.

A short moment passed before Aurelius dismissed the dragons.

...

"So, what did you two do for the whole day?" Molt asked Spyro and Cynder. He had been too busy looking after Flame to spend time with them.

"Well, Spyro took me for a walk around the city, and we went to the arena and watched a few dragons fight," Cynder answered.

"We also got to know a few of the other dragons that Hunter brought back," Spyro added. "What about you, Molt?"

"I spent the whole day taking care of Flame with Ember..." he said lamely.

Cynder chuckled. "At least you made yourself useful."

Molt shot her an unamused look. He wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or if she really meant it.

"So, if you were taking care of Flame, did you get to meet anyone else?" Spyro asked, trying to change the subject.

"Well, I met Zathos and Kristal, don't know if you know them."

"Oh, those two? You mean the really fast one and the one that uses crystals?" Cynder asked.

"They have names, you know..." Sparx commented.

Cynder ignored him. "Spyro and I saw them sparring back at the arena."

As the four friends made their way across the long hallway of doors to rooms, they caught sight of Flame. He seemed to be harassing the guardians about something.

"What's going on there?" Spyro wondered out loud.

As they neared Flame and the guardians, they could somewhat hear what they were talking about.

"So you guys are the guardians, right? The ones that were responsible for keeping the eggs and stuff?" Flame asked.

"Yes, that would be us. What is it you need, young dragon?" Volteer responded.

"Do you know anything about my father? His name was Ashmus, and he was a good friend of the guardian Ignitus!"

The three guardians remained silent for a while, as if they knew the truth but were contemplating on what to say to Flame.

"Ashmus... died for his beliefs," Terrador replied firmly.

Flame remained silent for a while. "I see... it's just that... nobody from the underground city told me anything about him. Everytime I asked they wouldn't say a word... Thanks anyway." With that, Flame walked off in the direction of his room.

Meanwhile, Spyro, Cynder, Molt and Sparx had heard the whole conversation.

"What do you think of that?" Sparx asked.

"Don't know. It's probably none of our business, anyway," Spyro replied.

"Whatever, my room is straight ahead, and I'm going to get some sleep. See you all tomorrow." Cynder trotted off towards her room.

"I guess I'll get going too." Spyro walked off as well.

"What about you? Not sleeping?" Sparx asked as he waved a hand in front of Molt's eyes.

Molt didn't reply. He seemed to be interested in what Flame had been talking about earlier, and he went after him.

He caught up to Flame. "Hey, I heard what you were saying earlier. Is... something wrong?" he asked.

"No... I just..." Flame seemed to be deep in thought.

"Something about your dad, huh," Sparx said as he leaned on one of Molt's horns.

"Everyone from the city... they wouldn't tell me anything whenever I asked them about him... but I managed to overhear some of them talking..." he slammed his paw on the ground. "They said he deserved to die! That's not true! My father wouldn't do anything bad! I'll... I'll find the one who killed him, and I'll make him pay!"

Molt shrank back a little, shocked by his sudden action. "I see..." he said uneasily. "I guess I'll see you around tomorrow, then." Molt turned around and walked towards his room.

* * *

**A.N. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry for the extremely late update, my final exams are near, and I probably shouldn't be writing this, but here you guys go. Tell me how garbage I was in the reviews. :D**

* * *

**Not a Guest: Yup.**


End file.
